Box Office Update: Den of Thieves 2 will be Lionsgate’s first Number 1 in over a year; Better Man tanks

Last Updated on January 16, 2025

It’s no secret that Lionsgate’s had a rough year at the box office. The mini-major is in bad shape after suffering pricey flops like Borderlands and The Crow. However, they’re scoring a much-needed win this weekend, with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera expected to finish in first place with a $15 million opening (about $3 million more than we predicted). That opening is in line with what the first film made back in 2018 and is a significant improvement over the last two Gerard Butler action flicks, Plane and Kandahar. The general thinking is that if it were not for the tragic Los Angeles wildfires, the film would have opened even higher, but even still, $15 million is a decent start for a movie that should have a long life on streaming. 

According to Deadline, Mufasa: The Lion King is a distant second, with $11 million plus, while Sonic the Hedgehog 3 should be in third with just over $8 million. Nosferatu is in 4th place with $6.3 million (with a terrific $81 million total), while Moana 2 is just behind it with $5.9 million.

However, Paramount’s Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man, has proven to be a complete disaster at the box office, with it only on track for $1 million despite playing on over 1200 screens. By comparison, Brady Corbett’s The Brutalist is set to earn the same amount on only 68 screens. The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson, is set to make about $1.35 million on less than half the amount of screens. Truly, this is a dire amount for a movie that was also bombed in the UK, where Robbie Williams is a household name. Given the $100 million plus budget, this will go down as a pricey flop, even if it’s quite a good film. So what happened? Williams’s appeal isn’t on the same level as someone like Bob Dylan (whose biopic, A Complete Unknown, has fared well), Elton John, Queen or Elvis. The fact that a CGI monkey plays him was maybe too big of a swing for director Michael Gracey, even if I have a hunch this will become a cult film down the line.

What are you watching this weekend? Will you be contributing to the box office of Den of Thieves 2 or Better Man?