The Big Picture
- Universal’s Night Swim debuted with a solid $12 million opening weekend, although it fell short compared to other January horror titles known for delivering impressive numbers.
- Despite negative reviews and a poor CinemaScore, Night Swim secured the second spot on the weekend box office chart, with word-of-mouth blockbuster Wonka still holding the top position.
- Universal’s animated film, Migration, narrowly claimed the third position with an estimated $10.5 million in its third weekend.
With over half a dozen holdovers still vying for attention at the domestic box office, only one new wide release dared to debut in the first week of 2024. Universal’s Night Swim, from the recently merged Blumhouse and Atomic Monster banners, is eyeing an opening weekend haul of $12 million, a figure that is on the higher end of projections but not quite as impressive as January horror titles are known to deliver. Last year’s M3GAN, for instance, debuted with a solid $30 million domestically.
Dampened by negative reviews and a poor CinemaScore from opening day audiences — the movie sits at a “rotten” 27% score on the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes — Night Swim’s $12 million opening weekend haul was good only for the second spot on the weekend chart, with the word-of-mouth blockbuster Wonka retaining its position at the summit. The musical drama has topped the weekend box office chart three out of four times over the last month and has now grossed $165 million domestically after generating another $15 million this weekend. Globally, the franchise starter is zooming past the $450 million mark, with $500 million well within reach.
It was a tight race for the third position, with Universal’s latest animated offering, Migration, narrowly winning out. The movie grossed an estimated $10.5 million in its third weekend, taking its running domestic total to just under $80 million. It took the studio’s last animated film — Trolls Band Together — two full months to pass the $100 million mark domestically, but December animated releases in the past two years have displayed phenomenal legs. Migration would hope to repeat the success of Sing 2 and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
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Taking the fourth spot, the superhero sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom grossed an estimated $10.4 million in its third weekend and is now sitting at a hair under $100 million domestically. The movie has already overtaken the recent superhero debacle The Marvels, and will soon overtake fellow DC Extended Universe release The Flash. Aquaman 2 is performing slightly better overseas and is passing the $300 million mark this weekend. But even though this is an improvement over recent superhero misfires, it’s still a giant drop from the $1.1 billion that the first Aquaman ended its theatrical run with in 2018.
The fifth spot was claimed by Sony’s Anyone But You, the new romantic comedy starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. The movie has been showing incredibly strong legs and actually jumped by 9% this weekend with an estimated gross of just under $10 million. Anyone But You has generated over $40 million domestically so far and is looking at a lifetime haul of around $70 million, perhaps signaling to studios that the R-rated comedy isn’t dead yet. Several high-profile Christmas releases, however, registered strong drops. Chief among them were The Color Purple and Ferrari, but A24’s The Iron Claw is still on its feet thanks to positive audience response and excellent critical buzz. The movie grossed $4.5 million this weekend, taking its running total to $25 million.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Night Swim
Feature length version of the 2014 short film about a woman swimming in her pool at night terrorized by an evil spirit.
- Release Date
- January 5, 2024
- Director
- Bryce McGuire
