Friday Estimates: Aquaman Can’t Escape Top Spot

January 5, 2019

Aquaman

Aquaman won the race for first place on the Friday box office chart, although it wasn’t as easy as originally expected. The film earned $9.3 million on Friday, lifting its running tally to $238.3 million after 15 days of release. It is on pace for $30 million over the weekend and $300 million in total.

Escape Room opened in second place with $7.7 million, which beats our original expectations. That said, this might not seem like much compared to the film’s $2.3 million it earned in previews yesterday, but its previews started at 4 in the afternoon. It is almost more accurate to say it opened on Thursday. Additionally, while its reviews have slipped below the overall positive level, it earned a B from CinemaScore, which is very impressive for a horror film and that should help its legs. Sony is estimating a $17 million opening weekend based on Friday’s result and it is hard to argue with that.

Mary Poppins Returns was next with $5.07 million, but because it is a holdover and not a new release, it will bounce back more on Saturday and earn second place on the daily chart and could earn second place during the full weekend with close to $17 million. More importantly, the film’s running tally will top its $130 million production budget today.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse matched expectations perfectly with $4.06 million on Friday, putting it on pace for just under $13 million over the weekend. At this pace, the film could earn enough domestically that Sony’s share of the box office will be more than its $90 million production budget.

Bumblebee was right behind; in fact, it was closer than expected with $3.94 million. It too should earn closer to $13 million over the weekend than $12 million. On the other hand, it will still be a little short of its $102 million production budget domestically, so it will not be as profitable as Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse will be, but it will be profitable.

- Friday Box Office Chart

- Escape Room Comparisons

Filed under: Friday Estimates, Aquaman, Bumblebee, Escape Room