Super Bowl Weekend Box Office: A Slow Start for 'Send Help'
The Super Bowl weekend box office is off to a sluggish start, with the highly anticipated 'Send Help' from 20th Century Studios and Sam Raimi falling short of expectations. The movie, which was expected to perform well, is now projected to earn only $10 million in its second weekend, a 48% drop from its second Friday. This is a positive sign for a genre movie, but it's still a significant decline. The film's ten-day total in North America is now estimated at $35.8 million.
In second place, Angel Studios' 'Solo Mio', a Kevin James rom-com, is expected to bring in $3.1 million today, including $744,000 from previews, leading to a $7.6 million opening at 3,052 theaters. This is a solid performance for a romantic comedy.
Bleecker Street's 'Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience', a K-pop concert movie, is attracting a dedicated audience with $3.2 million today, including $900,000 from Imax previews, and is projected to gross around $5 million over the weekend. The film boasts a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating a strong fan response.
Vertical's 'Dracula', directed by Luc Besson, is in fourth place with $2.3 million today and a projected $4.8 million opening. This would be a new high for the distributor, surpassing the $2.5 million opening of 'We Bury the Dead'. Interestingly, audiences on Rotten Tomatoes seem to appreciate the film more than critics, with a 75% score compared to critics' 57%.
Markiplier's 'Iron Lung' is experiencing a 74% drop in its second weekend, earning an estimated $4.65 million at 2,930 theaters. The film's second Friday brought in around $1.5 million. The running cumulative total by Sunday is expected to reach $29.45 million.
Lionsgate's 'The Strangers - Chapter 3' is struggling, with a projected $1.7 million today and a $3.7 million opening at 2,565 theaters. The film's performance is in contrast to its predecessor, 'The Strangers - Chapter 2', which opened to $5.8 million last September, and 'The Strangers - Chapter 1', which had the best opening of the series at $11.8 million in May 2024. Critics have not been kind to the horror film, giving it a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Amazon MGM Studios' 'Melania' is also experiencing a decline, with $3.5 million in its second weekend, a 51% drop, and a running 10-day total of $14.5 million by Sunday. This is a stark contrast to last year's Super Bowl weekend, which was led by DreamWorks Animation's 'Dog Man', which grossed $13.8 million in its second frame, resulting in a total of $54.2 million for all titles, the second-worst weekend of 2025.
