Friday Estimates: Box Office is Turned Upside Down

January 12, 2019

The Upside

The Upside surprised box office analysts with $6.95 million on Friday, knocking Aquaman out of first place on the daily chart. This is very likely enough to knock it out of first place on the weekend chart as well, becoming STX’s first number one hit. Most critics didn’t like the movie, but few hated it. Audiences, on the other hand, loved the movie, giving it an A from CinemaScore. If this translates into long legs, then it could earn first place with as much as $20 million, but $19 million is more likely at this point.

Aquaman was well back with $4.56 million on Friday, putting it on pace for between $15 million and $16 million over the weekend. Even though the film is going to miss expectations over the weekend, it will still cross $1 billion worldwide, so Warner Bros. will still have plenty to brag about.

A Dog’s Way Home is opening on the lower end of expectations and is on pace for just $11 million over the weekend after a $3.3 million start on Friday. Its reviews are good, but not great, while it earned an A minus from CinemaScore, which is again good for a family film, but not great. The film reportedly cost just $18 million to make, so this is a good enough start that Sony should earn a profit in the end. “Good enough” seems to be the most apt phrase for the film’s performance so far.

Escape Room managed fourth place with $2.65 million on Friday, putting it on pace for just over $8 million over the weekend.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was next with $2.2 million on Friday, putting it on pace for just under $8 million over the weekend.

The next “new” release was On the Basis of Sex, which expanded into third place with $2.14 million. This is not as potent as I was hoping, but a $6 million weekend is still a good result for a limited release for this time of year. Additionally, its reviews and its A rating from CinemaScore should help its legs going forward.

Replicas missed the top ten, and only managed $950,000 on Friday. Its reviews will likely be among the worst for any wide release of the year and it only earned a C rating from CinemaScore. It will miss the Mendoza Line by a significant degree before disappearing from theaters.

- Friday Box Office Chart

Filed under: Friday Estimates, Aquaman, Replicas, The Upside, A Dog’s Way Home, On the Basis of Sex, Escape Room