Box Office: 'The Upside' Dethrones 'Aquaman,' 'Replicas' Flops
"The Upside," starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart, surprisingly put an end to "Aquaman"'s three-week reign. The dramedy, a remake of the 2011 French film "Les Intouchables," earned $19.5 million to become the new box-office champ.
The continued controversy and speculation about whether or not Hart would host the Oscars — he finally turned the gig down for good -- seems to have helped, not hurt, him at the box office.
The film comes with its own drama: It premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was set to be distributed by the Weinstein Company. It was shelved after sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein came to light. STX and Lantern Capital then purchased the rights and worked with director Neil Burger to re-cut the movie from an R rating to PG-13 to make it more accessible for a broader audience. The strategy seems to have paid off.
Critics didn't love it — it has a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes — but audiences gave it a an "A" CinemaScore.
Meanwhile, "Aquaman" may not be the number one film in America any more, but this weekend it became the first DC comic-book movie to gross more than a $1 billion in global ticket sales since "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012.
It's also good news for Nicole Kidman, who costars in the top two movies at the box office right now. And this weekend, her indie cop drama, "Destroyer," (which had last week's best screen average) expanded to 21 more theaters and saw a boost of 54.4%. In three week of limited release, with a solid $5,620 per-screen-average, it's earned $426,264.
The family film "A Dog’s Way Home" opened in third place. The "Homeward Bound"-esque adventure about a dog (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard) who gets separated from her owner earned $11 million from 3,090 theaters. It’s a promising start since the movie, which cost $18 million to produce.
Sadly, Keanu Reeves's latest sci-fi film is no "Matrix." "Replicas," in which his character tries to bring back his dead wife and children, misfired with a dismal $2.5 million from 2,329 locations. It didn't do much better overseas, earning only $3.5 million from foreign territories. It currently has a 12% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 43% audience rating.
Winning two Golden Globes gave "Bohemian Rhapsody" a big boost at the box office in its 11th week of release. This weekend it rang up another $3 million, a 33 percent hike from last weekend. So far, it's earned $198 million in North America and $574 million internationally. Its sales were helped by sing-along screenings at 750 domestic locations that let audiences stomp and clap along with the band's arena anthems like "We Will Rock You."
Here are the top 10 estimates for January 11-13, 2019
1. "The Upside," $19,590,000
2. "Aquaman," $17,265,000
3. "A Dog's Way Home," $11,300,000
4. "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," $9,000,000
5. "Escape Room," $8,900,000
6. "Mary Poppins Returns," $7,215,000
7. "Bumblebee," $6,775,000
8. "On the Basis of Sex," $6,227,000
9. "The Mule," $5,545,000
10. "Vice," $3,278,644
[Via Variety]