Hollywood experienced its slowest box office weekend of the year due to the Super Bowl, with 'Send Help' retaining the top spot while the highly anticipated 'Melania' documentary suffered a significant drop in ticket sales. Studios used the Super Bowl for major film advertising.
The Super Bowl weekend proved to be the slowest for moviegoing in 2024, with Hollywood largely ceding attention to football. Despite the overall slump, the survival thriller 'Send Help' successfully repeated as the No. 1 film, earning $10 million in its second weekend and accumulating $53.7 million globally. In stark contrast, the highly anticipated 'Melania' documentary, despite adding 300 theaters, saw a dramatic 67% drop in its second weekend, pulling in only $2.4 million. With Amazon MGM having invested $40 million for film rights and an additional $35 million for marketing, the film's $13.4 million North American total positions it as a significant box-office flop, despite the studio's attempt to frame it as a 'critical first moment' for their distribution strategy. Meanwhile, studios capitalized on the massive Super Bowl television audience by heavily advertising upcoming blockbusters like 'Mandalorian and Grogu,' 'Michael,' and 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.' Other notable releases included the romantic comedy 'Solo Mio,' which debuted strongly with $7.2 million, the K-pop concert film 'Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience' earning $5.6 million domestically, and Luc Besson's 'Dracula' opening with $4.5 million. A standout indie success was the self-financed 'Iron Lung' by YouTuber Markiplier, which grossed $6.2 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to $31.2 million on a $3 million budget. Disney's 'Zootopia 2' continued its remarkable run, crossing $1.8 billion worldwide in its 11th week. The top 10 domestic box office for the weekend included: 'Send Help' ($10M), 'Solo Mio' ($7.2M), 'Iron Lung' ($6M), 'Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience' ($5.6M), 'Dracula' ($4.5M), 'Zootopia 2' ($4M), 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' ($3.5M), 'The Strangers: Chapter 3' ($3.5M), 'Shelter' ($2.4M), and 'Melania' ($2.4M).
