A WORKING MAN Topples SNOW WHITE

Amazon/MGM targeted Snow White and took her down with the help of Jason Statham’s A Working Man, which shot to our highest-end expectations with $15.2M on 3,262 screens for a $4,665 Per Screen Average. The beat ’em up extravaganza unexpectedly usurped the top spot despite middling-to-negative reviews (52% on Rotten Tomatoes), although the audience score was 90% while a “B” CinemaScore showed action hounds got what they wanted for the most part. It earned around the same $15M Den of Thieves 2: Pantera opened to in January, although notably on 254 more screens. Director David Ayer’s previous Statham flick The Beekeeper opened to $16.57M in January 2024.

Overall box office was way down (almost -44%) from last year’s 13th frame when Godzilla X Kong towered over Easter Weekend. Next week’s A Minecraft Movie is theater owner’s best hope for a savior until Thunderbolts* kicks off the summer in May.

Here’s how the 3-Day looked for A Working Man, including $1.1M in Thursday previews…

Friday – $5.6M
Saturday – $5.8M
Sunday – $3.78M

Audiences were 60% male/40% female, with age ranges spread fairly evenly across all three upper quadrants…

18-24 years old (16%)
25-34 years old (21%)
35-44 years old (15%)
45-54 years old (20%)
55+ years old (22%)

Here’s how demographics looked…

45% White
28% Hispanic
16% AA
6% Asian
5% NatAm/Other

Recent attempts to place unconventional leads (Jack Quaid, Ke Huy Quan) in comedic action fare (Novocaine, Love Hurts) failed to catch fire while the latest Captain America fell short, so it makes sense that an old school action star like Statham in a meat and potatoes revenger would connect right now. If you know it works and you can do it well…

Overseas it was Warner Bros. doing a majority of duty on A Working Man, launching the film in 41 territories including Germany, Spain, UK, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico to the tune of $8.8M on 6,332 screens. Black Bear handled 22 additional markets totaling out to $15M on 20,938 screens in 63 international territories for a global total of $30.2M. Biggest markets were Germany ($1.4M), Australia ($1.1M), and Mexico ($1.1M).

Not to be confused with Pinnacle Peak’s film The Last Supper (current $6.25M total after 3 weeks), the Fathom Events release of 5&2 Studios’ The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 1 wildly over-performed with $11.49M on 2,235 screens (including some IMAX locations) for a PSA of $5,142… the best PSA of this weekend’s Top 5.

A feature-length first-half of The Chosen Season 5, which will debut on Prime later this year, it is part of the popular faith-based TV series on the life of Christ which has made serious inroads to theatrical over the past few years. The first episodes of Seasons 3 and 4 each totaled over $14M during their theatrical runs in 2022 and 2024, and this one may top them all after next week’s grosses.

Here’s how the 3-Day looked…

Friday – $5.1MSaturday – $3.5M

Sunday – $2.8M

This is easily the biggest faith-based grosser of 2025 so far, as well as the most lucrative opener in The Chosen franchise… though Part 2 might prove even bigger.

After a couple disappointing stabs at blockbusters with Jungle Cruise and Black Adam, director Jaume Collet-Serra returns to his horror roots with Universal/Blumhouse’s single location shocker The Woman in the Yard. Despite poor reviews (41% on RT) and a “C+” CinemaScore, it managed to wrangle $9.45M (nearly double Death of a Unicorn) in 2,842 theaters for a $3,325 PSA in the #4 spot. In terms of Blumhouse’s opening track record, it’s in the same realm as meh performers like Happy Death Day 2U ($9.49M) and Imaginary ($9.9M), both of which topped out around $28M domestic.

Here’s how the 3-Day looked including $870K in Thursday previews…

Friday – $3.66M
Saturday – $3.5M
Sunday – $2.28M

The audience was 55% female (3/5ths of the film’s cast was female), and here’s what demographics looked like…

33% White
27% Hispanic
27% AA
7% Asian
5% NatAm/Other

While this might not be a through-the-roof opening, The Woman in the Yard deserves props for nearly hitting $10M with zero stars. The performance is purely on the strength of its scary original premise, devised by screenwriter Sam Stefanak and later praised on the Black List. Taking on Jason Statham, Disney, Jenna Ortega, and Jesus all in one weekend was a mighty task, and this low budget horror entry stood its ground.

We expected far better from A24’s latest slice of quark Death of a Unicorn, especially with two marquee stars (Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega) helping sell a unique satiric premise. Clearly it was too hip for its own good, opening well below forecasts to $5.78M on 3,050 screens for a PSA of $1,898. Reviews were poor at (55% on RT) while CinemaScore was a “B-” so clearly the film didn’t do itself any favors. RT audience rating is 76%, but fair to say the damage is done.

Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $700K in previews…

Friday – $2.27M
Saturday – $2M
Sunday – $1.4M

Although a fun premise, the intermingling of genres may have proven too hard a sell for a wide release. If audiences wanted horror, they had Woman in the Yard. If they wanted fantasy, they had Snow White. If they wanted comedy… well, nobody seems to go to the theater for comedy anymore. An ideal scenario would have been to build this with a platformed release, but A24 must have known word of mouth would not help. A similar snatch-and-grab wide release strategy gave eccentric horror movie Heretic (C+ CinemaScore) a $10.8M opening last year, but Death of a Unicorn was neither fish nor foul. While she was hot as the sun riding off the success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, hopefully Ortega can bounce back with Taika Waititi’s sci-fi flick Klara and the Sun later this year alongside Wednesday Season 2.

Bad press resulting from last week’s underperformance of Disney’s Snow White translated to $14.2M with a significant drop of -66% in its second frame, placing the pricy family film at #2 on the charts. That’s below 2019’s bomb Dumbo, whose second frame delivered $18.2M on 4,259 screens, meaning we’re not seeing the rebound Mufasa: The Lion King had over the winter. Next week it will likely get buried by A Minecraft Movie, and that will be all she wrote. Reshoots, delays, and PR fumbles from the film’s leads certainly gave the film a pungent odor upon opening, although dated material and the director who gave us 2014’s dreadful The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were also red flags. It takes many stars to align in order to have a hit, and in this case almost none of them aligned, pure and simple. It could get one last boost from schools out on Monday. Domestic total stands at $66.8M, with $143.1M globally.

Miramax and GKids’ IMAX-exclusive re-release of Studio Ghibli’s 1997 animated masterpiece Princess Mononoke wound up with one of the biggest PSA’s of the week ($12,135) as the movie took in an estimated $4M on 330 screens to land at #6 on the charts. The Hayao Miyazaki film had previously grossed over $200M worldwide, and has been part of GKids’ Studio Ghibli Fest program almost annually, though this is the film’s largest American gross to-date including the $2.3M it made in its initial 1999 US run. It has made a total of $12.9M domestically in 26 years. To meet unexpected demand, standard format screens will be added for this new restoration on April 4.

Sony Pictures Classics attempted a wide-ish debut on 1,017 screens for British dramedy The Penguin Lessons starring Steve Coogan, which took in $1.1M for a PSA of $1,096 to land at #12 on the charts. Co-starring Jonathan Pryce, the movie got decent reviews (81% on RT) and audience score (95%).

Another British comedy debut was Focus Features’ The Ballad of Wallis Island on 4 screens with a $92K total for a PSA of $23K. The well-reviewed film (96% on RT) follows an eccentric lottery winner who uses his cash to try to force a reunion of his favorite band. An expansion into approximately 50 North American theaters is expected next week.

Title Weekend Estimate % Change Locations Location Change PSA Domestic Total Week Distributor A Working Man $15,215,874 3,262 $4,665 15,215,874 1 Amazon MGM S… Disney’s Snow White $14,200,000 -66% 4,200 n/c $3,381 66,814,583 2 Walt Disney The Chosen: Last Supper — Part 1 $11,492,369 2,235 $5,142 11,492,369 1 Fathom Events The Woman in the Yard $9,450,000 2,842 $3,325 9,450,000 1 Universal Death of a Unicorn $5,787,425 3,050 $1,898 5,787,425 1 A24 Princess Mononoke $4,004,482 330 $12,135 14,904,482 1,327 Miramax Captain America: Brave New World $2,800,000 -30% 2,380 -520 $1,176 196,555,268 7 Walt Disney Black Bag $2,150,000 -50% 2,065 -648 $1,041 18,707,000 3 Focus Features Mickey 17 $1,920,000 -48% 1,648 -936 $1,165 43,585,000 4 Warner Bros. Novocaine $1,450,000 -61% 2,273 -1,096 $638 18,784,000 3 Paramount Pi… L2: Empuraan $1,270,000 600 $2,117 2,210,556 1 The Penguin Lessons $1,115,000 1,017 $1,096 1,115,000 1 Sony Picture… The Alto Knights $1,100,000 -65% 2,651 n/c $415 5,501,000 2 Warner Bros. Dog Man $850,000 -43% 1,071 -695 $794 97,251,000 9 Universal The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie $700,038 -63% 1,360 -1,343 $515 8,060,267 16 Ketchup Ente… Paddington in Peru $675,000 -48% 902 -751 $748 45,026,000 7 Sony Pictures The Monkey $610,000 -60% 795 -657 $767 39,028,914 6 Neon The Last Supper $295,000 -78% 837 -738 $352 6,254,291 3 Pinnacle Peak Mufasa: The Lion King $245,000 -64% 420 -420 $583 254,368,130 15 Walt Disney One of Them Days $222,000 27% 1,086 678 $204 49,915,000 11 Sony Pictures Last Breath $170,000 -81% 437 -1,082 $389 20,927,000 5 Focus Features The Ballad of Wallis Island $92,000 4 $23,000 92,000 1 Focus Features The Encampments $76,419 1 $76,419 76,419 1 Watermelon P… The Friend $66,853 2 $33,427 66,853 1 Bleecker Street Eephus $60,000 -50% 63 -19 $952 391,410 4 Music Box Films Misericordia $38,400 64% 22 19 $1,745 73,596 2 Janus Films Opus $26,786 -91% 29 -1,232 $924 1,830,654 3 A24 A Complete Unknown $18,000 -73% 45 -65 $400 74,964,233 14 Searchlight … Thank You Very Much $17,104 29 $590 17,104 1 Drafthouse F… Moana 2 $14,000 -68% 55 -70 $255 460,389,317 18 Walt Disney On Becoming a Guinea Fowl $13,430 -77% 35 -77 $384 131,609 4 A24 Unholy Song $9,896 2 $4,948 39,614 5 Hemdale Janis Ian: Breaking Silence $9,000 2 $4,500 9,000 1 Greenwich

Celebrity News

A WORKING MAN Topples SNOW WHITE

Leave a Reply Cancel reply