Tom Holland might be without his Spidey suit in “Uncharted,” but his latest action-adventure movie is still performing strongly at the North American box office.
The video-game adaptation starring Holland and Mark Wahlberg is on its way to earning $51 million for the long Presidents Day weekend, according to studio estimates on Sunday. Sony Pictures estimated the film’s Friday through Sunday grosses will be $44.2 million, putting it at No. 1.
Though not a superhero payday, it’s enough for the industry to breathe a sigh of relief, as it’s the biggest opening weekend since “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” The weekend’s other new wide opening, Channing Tatum’s “Dog,” found a modest audience and landed in second place.
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The unpredictability of pandemic-era audiences made “Uncharted” a bit of a wild card, and the poor reviews had some looking at the weekend warily. The Ruben Fleischer-directed film, based on a PlayStation game, opened on 4,275 screens.
“This result is yet another extraordinary testament to the appetite for the theatrical experience,” Josh Greenstein, president of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, said in a statement.
Holland’s megahit “Spider-Man: No Way Home” arrived exclusively in theaters late last year and has now earned more than $770 million in North America, making it the No. 3 domestic release of all time.
“Tom Holland is a megastar, regardless of whether he’s Peter Parker or Nathan Drake,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “For many of the actors who have portrayed superheroes, breaking out of that role and having big box-office success is a tough go.”
“Uncharted” still has a distance to go to make up its $120 million production budget, which will likely be heavily offset by overseas earnings. The film’s global total has already surpassed $100 million and unlike “Spider-Man,” “Uncharted” will also get the benefit of a release in China, beginning March 14.
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“Dog,” which Tatum co-directed (with his longtime producing partner Reid Carolin) and stars in, also opened on 3,677 screens this weekend. It’ll earn an estimated $15.1 million for the weekend and $18.1 million including Monday. Tatum plays an Army ranger tasked with driving a traumatized military dog from Oregon to Arizona for her handler’s funeral in the film, which was received well by critics and audiences. Plus, it only cost around $15 million to make.
The PostTrak survey shows that the opening weekend audience for “Dog” was 53% over age 35 and 54% female.
“To have two movies do really solid business makes it feel like 2019 all over again,” Dergarabedian says.
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In its second weekend, Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile” landed in fourth place with $6.3 million (for three days), behind “Spider-Man” with $7.2 million, while “Jackass Forever” took fifth place with $5.2 million.
According to Dergarabedian, the momentum from this weekend should be the “perfect lead-up” to the already highly anticipated release of Robert Pattinson’s DC superhero movie “The Batman” on March 4.
“Think about all the people in the movie theater this weekend being exposed to trailers,” Dergarabedian says. “This is great news for ‘The Batman.’ “
Final numbers are expected Tuesday.
Contributing: Kim Willis, USA TODAY
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