While we still have to wait a few more hours to see if the Philadelphia Eagles or the Kansas City Chiefs will win Super Bowl LVII, Magic Mike's Last Dance and James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water and Titanic have won the weekend box office battle.
As reported by Variety, Magic Mike's Last Dance took first place at the domestic weekend box office with ticket sales of $8.2 million. Despite it being enough to win the weekend, it was the lowest opening for a Magic Mike film, as 2012's Magic Mike opened to $39 million and 2015's Magic Mike XXL opened to $12.8.
It's important to note, however, that Magic Mike's Last Dance is only playing in half the amount of theaters than the first two films in the franchise as this latest entry was originally only supposed to be released on HBO Max. Following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the positive test screenings of Magic Mike's Last Dance caused the studio to switch its release strategy.
This means the film's production and marketing budget were geared more towards a movie set for a streaming release, and it looks to potentially have a tough time recouping its $40 million production budget and $20 million marketing budget.
In our Magic Mike's Last Dance review, we said it "is measured and mature, which makes it less of a crowd-pleaser than the first two movies, but it allows Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek to bask in their incredible romantic chemistry."
James Cameron claimed the next two spots in the top five, with Avatar: The Way of Water leading the way with a $6.9 million second-place finish. Avatar 2 has now passed $647 million in North America and $2.176 billion worldwide.
Cameron's Titanic, which first released in theaters in 1997, took third place and brought in $6.4 million in its return voyage to theaters. It didn't perform as well as the original Avatar's theatrical re-release in 2022, as that one earned $10 million domestically and $20.5 million internationally, but it still had a respectable return.
80 for Brady took fourth place with $6 million, bringing its domestic total to $24.9 million. Rounding out the top five were two films this time, as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Knock at the Cabin tied with box office sales of $5.5 million.
In North America, Puss in Boots has earned $158 million and Knock at the Cabin has made $23.4 million.
Magic Mike may have won the weekend, but the film won't have too long to enjoy the victory as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is set to take over the box office when it arrives next week.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/magic-mikes-last-dance-and-james-cameron-dominate-2023s-super-bowl-weekend-box-office