'Magic Mike' dances way to cinema win on Super Bowl weekend
Score another blow for movies in theaters, which ain't dead yet: Magic Mike's Last Dance, once set to be an HBO Max (NASDAQ:WBD) offering, led the box office on an admittedly lackluster Super Bowl weekend.
The film, the third in a Channing Tatum-starring series about male stripping, was budgeted and planned to appear on streaming first. But after David Zaslav took over Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) following the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger, the company opted for a run in theaters, which hit a modest 1,500 locations.
And it drew $8.2M, best among domestic movies this weekend, topping the $6.9M pulled by winter blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water (NYSE:DIS).
The Avatar sequel is still inching its way toward the No. 9 all-time slot for domestic movies, and it's a teasing $4M out of third place worldwide, held by Titanic.
But Titanic continues to hold on, thanks in no small part to it being the No. 3 film in theaters over the weekend. A 25th-anniversary release of the Paramount (NASDAQ:PARA) (PARAA) blockbuster pulled $6.4M domestically, and $22.3M worldwide to put off falling behind its fellow James Cameron film.
Rounding out the top six movies were football comedy 80 for Brady (PARA) (PARAA) with $6M, and M. Night Shyamalan horror Knock at the Cabin (CMCSA) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (CMCSA) with $5.5M each.
If things seemed slow for Super Bowl weekend, they ramp back up with a new Marvel (DIS) release on Friday: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWQ); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).