Pantera’ Eyes No. 1 Win With $14M+

SATURDAY AM: Lionsgate can relish a No. 1 win in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera this weekend which is now on its way to $15M+ opening, which is about the same as the 2018 original. Let’s hear it for great dating.

The studio known for counterprogramming found a great release date on the schedule and maximized it. The results here are better than 3-day of Gerard Butler’s last movie with Lionsgate, 2023’s Plane ($10.2M 3-day, $11.8M 4-day)

The sequel also gets a B+ CinemaScore like the original with PostTrak exits at a solid four stars and a diverse turnout with 31% Caucasian, 31% Latino and Hispanic, very good 25% Black and 6% Asian.

A third of the audience was between 25-34 years old, which was the largest demo, while, 52% of the audience was over 35. No Imax on the sequel, but PLFs are driving 31% of the business. Best markets are in the South, South Central, West and Midwest with Harkins Estrella Falls leading the way with over $21K so far.  

Social media universe for Den of Thieves 2: Pantera spanning X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, counts 108.4M which is in the vicinity of STX/Miramax’s The Gentlemen (104M), which opened to $10.6M during pre-Covid 2020. The sequel is further boosted by 50 Cent’s social media reach, who starred in the first film and produces here. He’s activated with 119.3M fans as well as Butler with 13.1M and O’Shea Jackson at 1.5M. 

Says RelishMix on the chatter, “Convo on Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is running positive as many fans of the original 2018 film excitedly anticipate the story’s return with viewers finding similarities in other popular crime movies, comments include, ‘Just watched the first one for the first time yesterday, was seriously impressed. This trailer has Fast and the Furious 8 vibes,’ and, ‘I love robbery movies and Den of the Thieves 1 is such an under rated movie. Big fan of The Town.’ The new direction for the sequel has piqued the interest of many, with fans writing, ‘If Nick really has swapped sides this is gonna be epic,’ while newcomers are being enticed with the trailer: ‘Hmm. Looks good. I did not see part one. I’ll check both of them out when this drops.’”

Officially opening this weekend after an exclusive Academy run back in December is Roadside Attractions’ pick-up of Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson at 870 theaters. The movie grossed $620K yesterday for what looks to be a $1.35M 3-day. Last Showgirl counts two SAG noms this week for Pamela Anderson lead actress and Jamie Lee Curtis supporting actress.

Paramount’s expansion of Better Man (which I’ve recently learned the studio co-financed their pick-up cost of $25M) is unfortunately tanking with $1M despite notching great audience exits (83% on PostTrak, 63% definite recommend). The pic’s lackluster exclusive release over the holiday ($3K per theater, yikes) said it all despite Paramount believing in this movie throughout festival season and giving it an awards season push. The pic’s song “Forbidden Road” getting pulled from the Academy’s short list didn’t help.

Also, an indicator that Better Man was bound to bomb here was the fact that it fell on its face in its UK homeland with just under $5M to date where pop star Robbie Williams is known. If the movie was going to work anywhere, it was there. I’m told he isn’t exactly George Michael as far as reputation goes over there, or even Geri Halliwell (that’s Ginger Spice for you, the Spice Girls unfaithful), hence no stampede. He’s certainly not Harry Styles on this side of the pond.

Despite a reach of 101M on social media for the film, buzz was negative according to RelishMix: “There are those who find the creative liberty to be unnecessary and irritating. Primarily, many are shocked there is a film being made and centered around Robbie Williams, considering his fame is outdated. His irrelevance is making it difficult for many audiences to care about the film: ‘Why does this exist? Has anyone cared about or heard anything from Robbie Williams since the ‘90s?’ Others are highly distracted by the lead being a monkey, ‘It seems like a great idea, but I just can’t take it seriously with Cesar from Planet of the Apes as the lead’ and ‘I always wondered what would happen if we started running out of ideas for movies, and I think this just answered it.’”

What provoked Paramount execs to buy this movie? Essentially, they were bowled over by the story and Michael Gracey’s filmmaking, and yet knew it was a stretch. The gut gamble? The chance that at the very least Better Man would become a cult title with dividends in the downstream, particularly Paramount+. In addition, Paramount was in business with Gracey on the feature take of the Jessica Townsend novel, Nevermoor. At the end of the day, we can’t entirely say that Paramount was irresponsible in their spend. Leave it to a streamer and they would have blown over $100M for Better Man with even more downside.

Men at 56% largely showed up for this movie in which Williams is played by a CGI monkey with 52% of the audience over 25, and largest demo being 25-34 at 28%. Diversity demos were 65% Caucasian, 18% Latino and Hispanic, 8% Black, 7% Asian, and 2% other. Any cash made by Better Man can be found in the West, Mountain and South regions with AMC Disney Springs the highest grossing venue in the nation with less than $3K so far.

Other notables:

A24’s multi Golden Globe winning The Brutalist expanded into 68 total locations this weekend (+65 from last week) with some pretty good ticket sales. Friday delivered $400K on its way to a 3-day of $1.1M (theater average of $16,1K). The movie was made for under $10M before A24 acquired it out of Venice. 

Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys expanded in its fifth frame to 26 theaters (from last weekend’s eight) including NYC, LA, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Nashville, Philly and Toronto with pretty good numbers after a Friday of $34K, 3-day of $107K, and running total of $573K.

The chart:

NotablesBetter Man (Par) 1,291 (+1,285) theaters, Fri $580K 3-day $1M, Total $1.1M/Wk 3

FRIDAY PM: Lionsgate looks to celebrate this weekend with their first No. 1 opening since November 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera which is currently seeing a $14M+ opening with room for upside. You’ll remember the Santa Monica, CA-based studio wasn’t exactly jumping into piles of cash last year in a slate that was starving for tentpoles. Friday is $5.5M-$6.5M on Pantera. For Gerard Butler, it reps his first No. 1 opening since August 2019’s Angel Has Fallen ($21.3M). Lionsgate has PLF and motion seats on Den of Thieves 2.

We’ll know as the weekend plays out how bad LA is with around a dozen closures; in total about 84 including those impacted by winter conditions in Texas.

Lionsgate inherited Den of Thieves 2 via their acquisition of eOne (which owned Sierra/Affinity). Their exposure on the $40M sequel after foreign sales is $15M with another mid $20M P&A being spent. Tucker Tooley co-financed the sequel with eOne and oversaw the segue of the title from STX to eOne. The studios has made a reported business out of these meat and potatoes action dude movies with upside in the PVOD windows and beyond. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be releasing them. Early Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak exits last night are at 72% positive, 3 1/2 stars with 64% men, 79% over 25.

Paramount’s wide break of Better Man is not looking sexy at $1M from 1,291 sites. The studio acquired the Michael Gracey directed movie for $25M including France and Japan territories.

Mufasa crossed the half billion mark at the global box office this AM. Moana 2 yesterday clocked $971.1M worldwide, overtaking Despicable Me 4 ($969.1M) as the No. 3 global release of 2024 and 13th highest grossing animated title of all-time.

Rest of the top 5 is as follows:

FRIDAY AM: Lionsgate’s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera made $1.35M yesterday from showtimes that began at 6PM, a figure that’s ahead of the $950K previews of the original 2018 movie by +42%, but under last year’s other guy meat and potatoes movie, The Beekeeper which did $2.4M in overall previews ($1.5M strictly in its Thursday) on its way to a $16.5M 3-day.

Previews for Den of Thieves 2 are also higher than that of Gerard Butler’s Plane back in January 2023 which did $625K on its way to $3.5M Friday and $10.2M 3-day.

Den of Thieves 2 is expected to open between $11M-$13M at 3,008 in what is a soft early January frame. Part of that has to do with the offerings here, however, business is certain to be slow in the No. 1 market of the country, LA, due to the wildfires. Of 14 cinemas that were closed, two reopened: The AMC Americana in Glendale and the AMC Topanga 12 in Canoga Park. Prime LA venues AMC Century City, AMC Burbank and AMC Grove remain open. Den of Thieves 2 could get beat by Mufasa or Sonic the Hedgehog 3 which are looking to do about the same.

The previous movie was released by STX when it was in its full glory. The sequel here with Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. returning as well as director Christian Gudegast, isn’t part of STX’s output deal with Lionsgate. Foreign sales for the sequel were announced at Cannes 2019 by Sierra/Affinity. Why a sequel? The first movie overperformed its single digit opening in January 2018 to $15.2M and wound up with $44.9M domestic and $80.5M worldwide.

Part two sees Big Nick (Butler) back on the hunt in Europe and closing in on Donnie (Jackson), who is embroiled in the treacherous and unpredictable world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world’s largest diamond exchange. The movie was produced and co-financed by Tucker Tooley, and produced by Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, and Mark Canton.

Deadline’s Pete Hammond enjoyed the sequel, which is 70% fresh with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Other offerings this weekend include the 1,200 theater expansion of Paramount’s biopic about pop star Robbie Williams, Better Man, which isn’t expected to do much in the single digits after an exclusive run that only put up an –eek–$3K to $4k theater average in its first two weekends.