‘Den of Thieves 2’ Breaks Lionsgate’s Box Office No. 1 Drought With $15 Million Opening

Lionsgate is hoping to put a poor 2024 box office behind them starting with the release of “Den of Thieves: Pantera,” which is opening to a solid $15 million from 3,008 locations and the studio’s first No. 1 since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in November 2023.

That matches the unadjusted $15.2 million of the first “Den of Thieves” released back in 2018. The sequel, which stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr., has received somewhat positive reception with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 60% critics and 80% audience and a B+ on CinemaScore. The film carries a $40 million budget, though Lionsgate’s strategy of recouping some or all of the investment on their films through foreign presales should lower the break-even point.

Holiday holdovers fill up the rest of the top 5, starting with Disney’s “Mufasa,” which will cross $500 million worldwide with an estimated $12 million fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $187 million.

Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” is passing a milestone of its own as the first film in the Sega series to cross $200 million domestic, earning $8.6 million in its fourth weekend for a $202 million domestic total.

Focus Features’ “Nosferatu” is in fourth with $6.3 million in its third weekend and an $81 million total, followed by Disney’s “Moana 2” with $5.9 million in its seventh weekend as it inches ever closer to $1 billion worldwide.

Overall grosses for the weekend are estimated to stand at $72 million, approximately a 31% drop from last weekend. This drop can primarily be attributed to the usual post-holiday drop as the public returns to work but is also being affected by winter storms hitting the southern and eastern U.S. and the wildfires in Los Angeles, where 12 theaters are currently closed.

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