• Box Office

World Box Office, January 17 – 23, 2022

It’s unusual for a movie to bounce back after six weekends. Spider-Man: No Way Home did just that, leaping past Scream 5 to become the domestic box office champ again.

Worldwide, Spidey crawled past a lion and dinosaurs to become the sixth-highest earner ever. With its $1.69 billion haul, Spider-Man: No Way Home eclipsed The Lion King and Jurassic World to claim the title of being the number six all-time biggest grossing movie globally.

In addition, Tom Holland’s blockbuster is now the ninth-highest grosser ever in IMAX, having earned a global total of $105 million in the large format.

And while the hit, which also stars Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Willem Dafoe, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, is already the fourth biggest earner ever domestically ($721.01 million), it has a chance to surpass Avatar’s $760 million to become number three.

Back to the domestic weekend, No Way Home collected $14.3 million to snatch the number one title again from Scream 5.

The slasher “re-quel” (reboot and sequel), with returning stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox, fell to second place with $12.4 million. The drop is expected in a horror genre but with $51.35 million in North America so far, Scream 5, which has a reported production budget of 24 million, is a profitable installment in the series.

After weekend grosses of $5.71 million added to its domestic tally of $128.41 million and a global total of $241 million, third placer Sing 2 is now the biggest animated feature hit in the pandemic era. The adventure-musical-comedy, voiced by Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon, Matthew McConaughey, Bono, Scarlett Johansson, and Tori Kelly, surpassed the global ticket revenues of Encanto ($223 million) and Croods: A New Age ($227 million).

Redeeming Love, described as a faith-based young adult combo, debuted with a scant $3.71 million but still managed to secure the fourth slot. Based on the bestselling historical romance novel of the same title by Francine Rivers, Redeeming Love is directed by D.J. Caruso and features Famke Janssen, Abigail Cowen, and Tom Lewis.

Ralph FiennesThe King’s Man took the fifth spot with $1.8 million while The 355 ranked sixth with $1.6 million. American Underdog, another faith-based drama, earned $1.23 million and ended up seventh.

In what is described by box office analysts as one of the worst opening weekends ever, The King’s Daughter, top-billed by Pierce Brosnan, bowed in eighth place with $750,000. Shelved by Paramount Pictures for several years until it was bought by Gravitas Ventures, The King’s Daughter is an action-adventure-fantasy directed by Sean McNamara that also stars Kaya Scodelario, William Hurt, Benjamin Walker, Rachel Griffiths, and Pablo Schreiber.

Rounding out the top ten were, in order, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story ($698,000) and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza ($683,000).

Overseas, Spidey continued to swing to the top with $27.7 million in more than 60 territories, including Korea, Australia, Norway, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and France.

Sing 2 also has powerful pipes offshore, racking up $12.8 million for overseas and global totals so far of $112.8 million and $241.21 million, respectively.

Scream 5 followed with $10.2 million for a worldwide cumulative of $84.95 million. The King’s Man drew $6.2 million in over 40 markets.

As expected, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast is performing strongly ($3.1 million) in the UK and Ireland, where it opened at the top.

In the world’s biggest film market, where the Chinese New Year looms, anticipation is high for Water Gate Bridge, the sequel to the phenomenally huge hit, The Battle at Lake Changjin. Directed again by three directors – Kaige Chen, Dante Lam, and Hark Tsui – the film’s cast includes stars from the original blockbuster: Jing Wu, Jackson Yee, and Yihong Duan.