Magic Mike's Last Dance Wins A Quiet Super Bowl Weekend With $8.2 Million Box Office Debut
His name is Magic. Magic Mike. And this Valentine's Day, he'll be here to entertain you. Described by screenwriter Reid Carolin as "Pretty Woman" meets "All That Jazz," "Magic Mike's Last Dance" sees Channing Tatum's Mike return to his roots as a male entertainer by launching a stage show in London based on his experiences. Steven Soderbergh returned to direct the threequel after being inspired by the real "Magic Mike" stage show on London's West End.
The original "Magic Mike," released in 2012, was a surprisingly big box office hit on a relatively small budget, and "Magic Mike XXL" was also a money-maker, albeit with smaller returns. That trend looks set to continue with "Magic Mike's Last Dance." Per Variety, the film has grossed $8.2 million across 1,500 domestic theaters in its opening weekend at the box office, the lowest debut of the franchise so far ("Magic Mike" opened with $39.1 million, while "Magic Mike XXL" made $12.8 million when it was first exposed to the public).
Still, this isn't a disaster. Super Bowl weekends are typically quiet for theaters, and "Magic Mike's Last Dance" managed to place at No. 1 with that $8.2 million. With more of a love story at the centre this time around — Mike gets serious with a wealthy socialite called Maxandra Mendoza (played by Salma Hayek Pinault) who encourages him to create the stage show — it could draw both couples and groups of single ladies on February 14. According to The Wrap, Warner Bros. Pictures hopes that the Valentine's Day earnings will make up for the soft weekend opening. The studio also reports that ticket sales for the stage shows in London, Las Vegas, and Miami have increased by 50% over the last year.
The box office gets wet
This weekend also finds director James Cameron competing with himself, as "Titanic" returns to theaters in remastered 4K 3D to celebrate its 25th anniversary, and "Avatar: The Way of Water" just keeps swimming in its ninth weekend of release. The two Cameron films are currently vying for third place on the list of all-time highest-grossing movies, with "Titanic" holding onto it for now, but "The Way of Water" threatening to bump it down to No. 4 in the coming weeks. Variety reports that it was a tight race over the Super Bowl weekend, with the "Avatar" sequel remaining at No. 2 with a weekend total of $6.9 million, and "Titanic" close behind with 6.4 million.
The arrival of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" next weekend is expected to blow everything else out of the water, but "Magic Mike's Last Dance" makes for pretty solid counter-programming, and the big-screen spectacle of "Titanic" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" will probably continue to draw modest audiences. Then things are going to get really weird in the last weekend of the month, when comedy-thriller "Cocaine Bear" arrives in theaters. Who will win in a fight between ants, a coked-up bear, male strippers, and blue aliens? The people watching the fight, probably.