by Conan Simmons – February 14, 2022 – 8:11 pm
‘Death on the Nile’ took a long-delayed cruise to the top of the Weekend Box Office Top 5. The Agatha Christie mystery directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer sailed past the other new releases and box office holdovers in theaters. Earning $12.9 million ‘Death on the Nile’ isn’t the big hit it needs to be to make back its budget, but it may signal to Hollywood that movies featuring casts embroiled in controversy might not be the box office poison the studio executives often dread.
The cast of ‘Death on the Nile’ features Armie Hammer who, due to explicit messages leaked online regarding very graphic cannibal sex fantasies, was replaced in this week’s other new release, the romantic comedy ‘Marry Me’, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson who took over the role after producer’s chose to avoid controversy by replacing Hammer. ‘Marry Me’ took in a mere $7.9 million for third place, behind last weekend’s big winner ‘Jackass Forever’. ‘Marry Me’ undoubtedly left some money on the table by releasing day-and-date on streaming service Peacock. Had it not been for that ‘Marry Me’ likely could have surpassed ‘Death on the Nile’ in theaters.
Other cast members in ‘Death on the Nile’ dealing with controversies are Letitia Wright, who vacated social media after backlash to her opinions about the Covid vaccines but likely won’t have a negative impact on her starring in the upcoming Marvel film ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ due out later this year, and Gal Gadot, who recently revealed the behind the scenes struggles on 2017’s superhero slop ‘Justice League’ regarding some of the allegations that have made once popular director Joss Whedon persona-non-grata in Hollywood. Then of course there is Russell Brand whose struggles with drug addiction seem to be behind him.
The other new release this weekend showed up in fifth place, the Liam Neeson action vehicle ‘Blacklight’, which pulled in $3.5 million keeping it far from ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ which clung to fourth place with $7.5 million.
Next weekend will undoubtedly be dominated by the action-adventure video game adaptation, ‘Uncharted’, starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas. There is also good chance of Channing Tatum’s directorial debut, ‘Dog’, a comedy in which stars with a canine making a good showing somewhere in the Weekend Box Office Top 5.
Of course, when March 4 comes around the Weekend Box Office Top 5 will be dominated by ‘The Batman’, starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano and Jeffrey Wright.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (February 11-13, 2022)
- ‘Death on the Nile’ – $12.9 million – mystery (debut)
- ‘Jackass Forever’ – $8.1 million – comedy (drop $15.1 million, 65% down)
- ‘Marry Me’ – $7.9 million – romantic-comedy (debut)
- ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ – $7.5 million – fantasy (drop $2 million, 21% down)
- ‘Blacklight’ – $3.5 million – action-adventure (debut)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $39.9 million. This is a drop of $11.7 million, for a loss of 23%, from last weekend’s total of $51.6 million.