Box Office Round-Up ~ 3/27/24

By: [email protected] on

Audiences were clearly not afraid of no ghosts as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire debuted with a solid $45 million at the box office. It slightly surpassed 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife to become the 2nd-best opening weekend in the franchise (after standalone reboot Ghostbusters back in 2016). Though it’s generous to call Frozen Empire a straight-up horror movie, it was representative of a strong weekend for horror at the box office.

Dune: Part Two and Kung Fu Panda 4 duked it out for second place, with Paul Atreides and company coming out ahead with $17.6 million, just over a million ahead of Panda’s $16.5 million.

Back to horror, the latest in the trendy “scary nun” sub-genre premiered with $5.3 million. Led by Sydney Sweeney, Immaculate was one of two horror titles to debut with stronger-than-expected numbers. Just outside the top five, Late Night with the Devil debuted with $2.8 million, an excellent number considering its sub-$2 million budget. It was nudged out of the top five by Arthur the King’s sophomore weekend gross of $4.2 million.

March will close out with the battle of the Empires, as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will have to face the one-two punch of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The horror and action titles will face new competition in the first full weekend of April with the release of The First Omen and Monkey Man, starring, written and directed by Dev Patel.

1.  Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ($45 MM)
Director: Gil Kenan (WME)
Writers: Gil Kenan (WME), Jason Reitman (WME)
Cast: Paul Rudd (UTA)
        Carrie Coon (UTA)
        McKenna Grace (CAA)

2.  Dune: Part Two ($17.6 MM)
Director: Denis Villeneuve (CAA)
Writers: Denis Villeneuve (CAA), Jon Spaihts (CAA)
Cast: Timothée Chalamet (UTA)
        Zendaya (CAA)
       Rebecca Ferguson (CAA)

3. Kung Fu Panda 4 ($16.5 MM)
Director: Mike Mitchell (UTA), Stephanie Stine (Fourth Wall)
Writers: Jonathan Aibel (UTA), Glenn Berger (UTA), Darren Lemke (UTA), David Lindsay-Abaire (WME), Lillian Yu (UTA)
Cast: Jack Black (Ocean Avenue)
         Awkwafina (UTA)
         Viola Davis (CAA)

4. Immaculate ($5.3 MM)
Director: Michael Mohan (WME)
Writers: Andrew Lobel (Ronin Entertainment)
Cast: Sydney Sweeney (Paradigm)
         Álvaro Morte (Untitled Entertainment)
         Simona Tabasco (WME)

5.  Arthur the King ($4.2 MM)
Director: Simon Cellan Jones (Gersh)
Writers: Michael Brandt (CAA)
Cast: Mark Wahlberg (WME)
        Simu Liu (CAA)
        Juliet Rylance (Gersh)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers