The Bad Boys continue to ride at the top of the box office, as neither of the newbies this week could mount a serious challenge to the potential record-breaking January release. Guy Ritchie had a better-than-average Guy Ritchie opening (when not mounting a big tentpole picture) and horror continued to take a backseat to everything, with even a low budget not being low enough.

King of the Crop: Bad Boys for Life Aims for Biggest January Release of All Time

(Photo by Ben Rothstein/©Columbia Pictures)

Bad Boys For Life earned another $34 million in its second weekend release. That puts its 10-day total at $120.6 million, which places it in league with films like Ted, Twilight, and Thor, all of which grossed between $181-219 million. These are incredible numbers for a fresh January release. Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper had already been in limited release since December and was also on the verge of a big awards run when it hit a similar benchmark. The best ten-day total for a brand new January release up to this weekend was M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, whose $77.38 million at this point seems rather paltry now. By next weekend, not only will the third Bad Boys film surpass the gross of 2003’s summer release of Bad Boys II, but it’s likely to zoom past Paul Blart: Mall Cop as the biggest January release of all-time.

Rotten Returns: The Turning Adds to An Already Dismal January for Horror

(Photo by Universal Pictures)

The Grudge reboot opened to $11.4 million and only just recently crossed $20 million. Underwater started with just $6.3 million and limped past $15 million. Now it is The Turning’s turn to make the horror genre look bad. Fans just are not buying these January efforts, and neither are critics, given the film’s dismal 13% on the Tomatometer. Even with a budget estimated between $10-14 million, The Turning is going to be underwater itself, as it may have trouble even reaching $15 million. We’ll see if Gretel & Hansel can break the curse next week.

The Top 10 and Beyond: 1917 Continues to Do Well, but Audiences Shrug at The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie returned to the world of off-kilter crime capers with The Gentlemen and managed to get folks to fork over $11 million to it. That is more than Snatch back in 2000 ($8 million), which was sold on the supporting performance of Brad Pitt, and certainly much better than the limited releases of RocknRolla; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; and Revolver. But an opening in that range is likely to lead to somewhere in the $25-30 million range, which is just another January shrug.

Sam Mendes’ 1917 may be a bit of a shrug with the few critics pushing back against its style, but it certainly is not with audiences who helped push the film over the $100 million line with another $15.8 million weekend. Even if you lop off its two-week limited run, 1917 has still earned more in 17 days of wide release than M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, which charts the film for a course over $140 million. While Universal can celebrate that, they are also staring down the grosses for Dolittle. With another $12.5 million this weekend, the film is coming in under the pace of two of the Underworld sequels, Awakening and Evolution, each of which finished with $62+ million. The family aspect could keep Dolittle in that range, but until it reaches a half-billion in grosses worldwide, the film is going to be deep into the red.

Wrapping up other milestone news, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally passed half-a-billion domestically. Jumanji: The Next Level is hoping to have enough in the tank to make it to $300 million, still ranking in the top five with over $283 million. Knives Out passed $150 million after spending its ninth straight week in the top 10. And Little Women should still have enough pull to reach $100 million. It currently stands at $93.7 million.

This Time Last Year: Glass Remained King

(Photo by Universal Pictures)

M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass led for a second straight week, dropping 53% to $18.88 million. That was more than the two big new releases would make combined, with The Kid Who Would Be King coming in fourth with $7.17 million and the roasted Matthew McConaughey/Anne Hathaway twister, Serenity, which was eighth with only $4.41 million. The Top Five was rounded out by The Upside continuing to do solid business, falling only 20.4% to $11.94 million. In its sixth week, Aquaman made another $7.26 million, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse was fifth with $6.11 million. Clint Eastwood’s The Mule also finally crossed the $100 million line in its seventh weekend. The Top Ten films earned just $73.81 million which was the lowest full January weekend of the last decade. This year’s Top Ten grossed an estimated $100.15 Million and averaged 66.5% on the Tomatometer. 2019’s Top Ten averaged 54.0% with critics.

On the Vine: The Rhythm Section and Gretel & Hansel

Horror and revenge will close out the first month of the decade. Blake Lively stars in Reed Morano’s The Rhythm Section as a woman looking for retribution for the death of her family. Then we also have Oz Perkins’ revisionist take on Gretel & Hansel starring Sophia Lillis from the It movies. The horror genre has not had a great month, with the reboot of The Grudge, Underwater, and this week’s The Turning. Can this be the one to put fans in seats, or will it be a third week in a row for Bad Boys for Life?

The Full Top 10: January 24-26

Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on WGN Radio with Nick Digilio as well as on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.

[box office figures via Box Office Mojo]

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