One Love’ Domestic Box Office Debut Smokes ‘Madame Web’

The domestic box office showed some signs of life after a couple of weeks in the doldrums, with two major new releases drawing different levels of interest among audiences. Paramount’s music biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, continued to exceed expectations after debuting mid-week, on Valentine’s Day, and Sony’s latest attempt to piggyback on the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Madame Web, opened to soft numbers on the back of toxic reviews.

Starring Kingsley Ben-Adir and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, One Love made a record-breaking $14 million on Wednesday, and added nearly $4 million on Thursday. On its first Friday of release, the biopic grossed $7.5 million, taking its running domestic total to $25 million in three days. Produced on a reported budget of $70 million, One Love focuses on a chapter in the life of reggae icon Bob Marley. The movie is projected to gross around $46 million in its extended six-day debut — from Valentine’s Day on Wednesday to President’s Day on Monday.

One Love debuted to mixed reviews from critics — it currently sits at a “rotten” 43% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes — but it scored top reactions from audiences. The film earned an excellent A CinemaScore from opening day crowds, and currently has a 94% audience rating on RT. Collider’s Nate Richard praised Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch’s performances, but was critical of the storytelling.

‘Migration’ and ‘Wonka’ Continue to Triumph at the Domestic Box Office Despite Having Debuted on Digital

There’s little hope, however, for Madame Web, the latest in Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off series, which also includes Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Morbius. The bar wasn’t too high to cross, but Madame Web is poised to deliver the lowest opening of the series, after earning a worse RT score (13%) than that of even the universally-derided Morbius. Starring Dakota Johnson, who already seems to be washing her hands off the film, Madame Web grossed $6 million on Wednesday, followed by $2.1 million on Thursday and $4.3 million on Friday. This takes the film’s running domestic haul to around $12 million in three days, with a projected $24 million haul across six days.

Apple’s big-budget dud, Argylle, added $1.1 million on its third Friday, and is expected to generate around $5 million by Monday, which should take its running domestic total to $35 million. This would have been a poor result for the film, considering its stacked cast, regardless of the fact that it cost a reported $200 million to produce. Also in contention for the top five this weekend are two phenomenal holdovers — Universal’s Migration and Warner Bros.’ Wonka. While the animated film will challenge Argylle with a projected $5 million haul across four days, taking its running domestic total to $116 million after eight full weeks, Wonka is eyeing around $4.5 million by Monday, which will take its domestic gross to $211 million after 10 weeks. Elsewhere, Fathom’s release of the fourth through sixth episodes of The Chosen grossed $1 million on Friday. The previous batch of episodes generated nearly $14 million in two weeks. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.