Weekend projections: Don't Worry, Darling headed to healthy $19-million weekend

September 26, 2022

Don’t Worry Darling

Don’t Worry, Darling was headed to a healthy $19.35-million opening weekend as of Sunday morning, according to Warner Bros. projection (final numbers may be out by the time you read this—apologies for the delayed report this weekend). Our weekend prediction, based mainly on the preview numbers reported on Friday morning, was quite a bit higher, at $28.2 million. But our model predicted a weekend around $18 million before those previews came in, so the final number is a solid opening for the thriller.

Here’s how the domestic numbers look as of Sunday morning (click on the image for the full chart of films reporting so far, including live reporting of the final numbers)…



While Don’t Worry, Darling is falling short of how things looked on Friday morning, that $19.35-million number is reportedly better than what Warner Bros. was expecting going into the weekend. Its prediction was almost certainly boosted by the IMAX preview screenings earlier in the week boosting the film’s overall preview number. The concern that raises is that the Friday-to-Sunday opening number for Darling was a more modest $16.25 million. That might bode ill for its declines in the coming weeks, although word of mouth could be solid.

The rest of the films in the top 10 generally did well this weekend, with The Woman King notably strong. Its second-weekend decline of 42% is much better than usual, and suggests it could have a healthy run. It has $36 million already, and should easily surpass $50 million in the next few weeks. Pearl and See How They Run also had very good holds in their second weekends. They might struggle to hold on to theaters next weekend though, as their average earnings per theater are well below $1,000.

Those good holds helped to keep the market up over the weekend. We’re still very early in the Fall season, but two “up” weekends in a row is a good start.

- Studio weekend projections
- All-time biggest weekends - All-time top-grossing movies in North America
- All-time top-grossing movies worldwide

Bruce Nash,