While it managed to dethrone Captain America: Brave New World, Mickey 17 still posted a disastrous opening.
If you were waiting for the dam to break at the box office, allowing a torrent of dollars to flood a sleepy post-Oscars weekend, prepare to get caught in an undertow of disappointment. After a brief delay, acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho returned to theaters this weekend with Mickey 17, a quirky sci-fi epic starring Robert Pattinson that, despite its stumble during its box office debut, dethroned Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World after three weeks at the top of the charts. While Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer, Okja, and the Best Picture-winning film Parasite are beloved cinematic treats, Mickey 17 only managed $19.1 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend.
Ho’s previous film, Parasite, earned $376,264 during its U.S. theater debut, making its $125,421 per-theater average a 2019 record-setter. At the time of its release, Ho’s unsettling social thriller managed the best per-screen haul since La La Land, an impressive feat for the acclaimed film about twisty class war and symbiotic relationships between two families of opposite means. Mickey 17 is decidedly different because the plot brings Ho back to the science-fiction genre, with bankable stars like Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, and Mark Ruffalo leading the bill.
Certainly, an opening under $20 million is a disaster, but one I think we all saw coming. I optimistically predicted a $23 million start, but that wasn’t to be. It’ll be on the foreign grosses now to prevent Mickey 17 from losing a ton of money. It follows Joker: Folie a Deux as a major flop for WB, with several big-budget, risky projects on the horizon like Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (which I think will do well), A Minecraft Movie, and the P.T. Anderson/ Leonardo DiCaprio movie due this summer, which apparently cost a ton (we should finally get a title and trailer at CinemaCon next month).
Captain America: Brave New World managed to hang in there, falling 43% to an $8.5 million weekend, with a total of $176 million domestically. Will it break $200 million domestically? We’ll have to wait and see. Focus Features’s Last Breath made $4.2 million for a $14.6 million total, which isn’t bad for an indie, although Focus certainly gave it a major studio release, on over 3000 screens. Neon’s The Monkey made another $3.9 million for a $31 million total, with it ranking as one of Neon’s biggest hits ever.
Family flicks continued to rake in the dough, with Paddington in Peru making $3.9 million for a $36 million total (it’s made more than any other film in the franchise domestically), while Dog Man made $3.5 million for an $88 million total. Mufasa: The Lion King made $1.7 million in eighth place, with a $250 million total.
Just above it was Best Picture winner Anora, which was re-released and grossed $1.86 million, with a $18.4 million domestic total. The Angel Studios release, Rule Breakers, only did modest business, making $1.59 million. However, In the Lost Lands, the latest from Paul W.S. Anderson, grossed a disastrous $1.04 million, for a per-screen average of $761 dollars. Ouch.
Next week sees the release of Paramount’s buzzy action comedy Novocaine, which should be able to take the top spot at the box office from Mickey 17. However, 2025’s box office doldrums seem likely to continue for another few weeks at least.
