The North American box office has had a very slow start to 2024. Industry onlookers had reason for optimism after some brilliant success stories in the previous year. This included box office winners like Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Oppenheimer. Of course, there were also the usual suspects of Disney/Marvel releases like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Little Mermaid, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, all of which took home over $295 million domestically.
The musical reimaging of Mean Girls managed to snatch up the top spot at the weekend box office for another week from January 26-28, bringing in $6.90 million. That brought its total domestic gross to $60.4 million, making it the second-largest film in the young year behind Wonka’s $61.7 million. Wonka, Migration, and Anyone but You rounded out the top five films at the domestic box office with ticket sales of $5.66 million, $4.89 million, and $4.62 million, respectively.
Last week, I’d covered the somewhat underwhelming movie lineup that cinema operators will have to rely on in February 2024. What does the lineup look like for March? Dune: Part Two is generating significant hype ahead of its March 1st release date. Dune was something of a litmus test for Hollywood when it was released in 2021. Despite the obstacles it faced in the COVID-19 pandemic, the film managed to achieve a domestic box office gross of $108 million.
AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC), the largest cinema operator in North America, also has other exciting releases to look forward to in the final weeks of the winter. Kung Fu Panda 4 and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are also well-positioned to generate big ticket sales.
