Gerard Butler and O’shea Jackson Jr. return for the Den of Thieves sequel, but it may have an uphill battle for the weekend.
January releases are here. Normally, the month is a dumping ground for films that studios have little faith in to become moneymakers. However, that is not to say that enjoyable films can’t come out in January. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera was enjoyed by our Chris Bumbray in his review despite not being a big fan of the first film. Other critics have been giving the action heist sequel a lukewarm reception as the movie currently sports a fresh 67% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Deadline now reports that the Thursday previews for the Gerard Butler/O’shea Jackson Jr. film has taken in $1.35 million in early Thursday previews. Showtimes started yesterday at 6 pm and the appeal of the sequel doesn’t cast a notably wide net as an R-rated heist film. Additionally, Los Angeles, which is the largest market in the country, will affect the numbers as the city is currently in a state of emergency. Other places in the U.S. are also being hit with winter weather that discourages people from leaving home. The movie is projected to hit $11 million-$13 million at 3,008 theaters.
In his review, our EIC had a blast with the movie as he says, “I enjoyed Den of Thieves 2: Pantera much more than I thought I would. With the sunny European locales and international flavor, it’s the perfect mid-level January release and should prove popular enough among Butler’s fans that I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually get a third movie in the series. It’s surprisingly fun!”
And recently, the film’s star, Butler, revealed that he was coming off of surgery when filming the movie. “This was a weird time for me at the beginning of this movie because I’d been through a pretty intense surgery, and then I tore my ACL fully about a month later and then started this movie,” Butler said. “So I was not in the best shape, and it was a pretty physical movie, and I didn’t have a chance to get the surgery on my ACL, so I made this movie with a freshly torn ACL, and it was pretty rough.“
Butler continued, “But yeah… I wanted to put a ‘but’ in to make it sound positive, but it wasn’t positive; it was a nightmare! And I was a whiny little bitch!“
