By Ben Miller
Super Bowl weekend has never been a hotbed of film dollars, and this weekend was no different. Magic Mike's Last Dance, the third and final entry in Steven Soderbergh's male stripper series, won the weekend with a sub-$10 million opening. That doesn't happen very often in the world of big budgets. In fact, in the 21st century (excluding COVID openings), only Bangkok Dangerous and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star had a worse opening and still managed to top their weekends. That being said, the film only opened on 1,500 screens, so the per-screen average was pretty solid. Second and third both belonged to director James Cameron. Avatar: The Way of Water continues to work its way up all-time charts, but the re-release of Cameron's 1997 Oscar-winner Titanic added a respectable total for a 25-year-old film.
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) Feb 10th-12th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended /  = Oscar Nominated |
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| WIDE (Over 800 Screens) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE |
 CONSECRATION |
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1 🔺 MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE $8.3 *NEW* 1,500 screeens |
1 PATHAAN $976k (cum. $15.9) 492 screens |
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2 🔺 CONSECRATION $329k *NEW* 762 screens |
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3 🔺★ TITANIC (25th-Anniversary) $6.7 2,464 screens |
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| 4 80 FOR BRADY $5.8 (cum. $24.7) 3,939 screens |
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6 KNOCK AT THE CABIN $5.4 (cum. $23.3) 3,657 screens |
6 THE WANDERING EARTH II $266k (cum. $4.5) |
 A MAN CALLED OTTO |
 CLOSE |
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7 A MAN CALLED OTTO $2.6 (cum. $57.3) 2,824 screens |
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8 MISSING $2.5 (cum. $26.5) 2,315 screens |
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9 M3GAN $2.4 (cum. $90.9) 2,508 screens |
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10 PLANE $1.2 (cum. $30.7) 1,679 screens |
10 MAYBE I DO $89k (cum. $1.1) |
| 11 THE AMAZING MAURICE $881k (cum. $2.6) 1,527 screens |
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only 11 films in wide release? That is far too few |
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The only other new film in release was the low-budget supernatural religion horror film Consecration. The film made less than $500 per screen. Pretty much everything else was noticably down for the week, with the exception of the International Feature nominee Close. It actually increased in money with a slight theater expansion. Lukas Dhont's film has made over $400k without ever getting on more than 100 screens. It will finally get a proper release next week.
Next week - Everyone clear out and make room for Marvel as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is expected to open to $100+ million. We also get Liam Neeson as Phillip Marlowe in the aptly-titled Marlowe, plus limited releases of the gay romance Of An Age and the Emily Bronte "biopic" Emily (which oddly went to the trouble to Oscar-qualify in 2022)
What did you see this weekend? Lots of romantic comedies for me, including 1941's Ball of Fire, J-Lo's Shotgun Wedding, and a rewatch of You've Got Mail. I also found time for Oscar-nominees Two Days, One Night and Witness. I also searched around and found the elusive Best Original Song nominee Tell it Like a Woman. Believe me, you don't want to find it.