The Northman Is On Track To Pillage $12.5 Million At The Box Office In Its Opening Weekend
Alexander Skarsgård is bravely hacking his way into the box office this weekend, as Variety reports that Viking epic "The Northman" is on track to make $12.5 million. Though that will only land it at the #4 spot, the highly-anticipated Robert Eggers film is holding its own in a crowded, interesting movie weekend.
The Focus Features film is one of several original, non-franchise movies available to watch in theater right now, with others including Dreamworks Animation's "The Bad Guys," Lionsgate's "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," A24's "Everything Everywhere All At Once," and Paramount's "The Lost City." If you're a moviegoer inclined to support mid-budget movies and independent films, this is a great week to do so!
A franchise flop era?
Although "The Northman" bested some initial projections and fared well for a Focus Features release, the film still has an uphill battle to face in order to earn back its reported $90 million budget. Critics have given the bloody historical thriller from the filmmaker behind "The Witch" a seal of approval, as it's officially Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. "The Northman" -– and everything else in theaters this week — will also face strong competition when "Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness" is unleashed the first week of May.
For now, though, the box office holds steady, with "The Bad Guys" earning the weekend's top spot. The animated comedy about a group of animal criminals beat out theaters' other family-friendly option, "Sonic The Hedgehog 2," which still earned second place in its third weekend in theaters. "The Bad Guys," which stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Ramos, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, and Awkwafina, is projected to earn $25 million by weekend's end, per Variety.
Though the latest Harry Potter spin-off film, "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," debuted last week to flop-level numbers, the film did earn third place overall at the domestic box office this weekend. Still, it's a marked failure for Warner Bros. and the once-loved franchise, as the movie only took in $4.1 million on Friday. The film has reportedly made $207 million worldwide as of publication time. In comparison, the most lucrative Potter project, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2," made well over a billion dollars globally by the end of its run.
In an IP-heavy theatrical economy, it's surreal to see "Fantastic Beasts" fall, but it's not the only major tentpole that's failing right now. Sony's "Morbius," the Marvel-adjacent Jared Leto starrer, still hasn't broken even domestically and seems to be fading out. The film earned a dismal $2.25 million in its fourth weekend. Sony's previous recent project, "Spider-Man: No Way Home," was still topping the box office weeks after this point in its launch.