Box Office: ‘Mean Girls’ Threepeating on Top as January Goes Out With a Whimper

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Four Chinese films dominated the global box office charts over the weekend, with combined takings of $350 million earned over just two days. And, as North America watched the Super Bowl instead, the weekend’s top Hollywood title, “Argylle” earned just $15.9 million worldwide. Chinese titles eschewed their usual Friday release pattern and opened on Saturday, the first official day of the Lunar New Year holiday period in China and much of Asia. Female-directed comedy drama “YOLO,” earned $113 million (RMB802 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was narrowly ahead of car-racing comedy “Pegasus 2,” which earned RMB758 million or $107 million and was the bigger title on Saturday.

The Taste Of Things, a meditation on turn-of-the-century French cooking — no chicken wings or nachos in sight — is stirring up a nice weekend for IFC Films with $126k and the best per-theater opening of the year so far on Super Bowl weekend.

“Lisa Frankenstein” didn’t come to life at the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters.The horror comedy written by Diablo Cody and starring Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse earned $3.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.It debuted in second place on a very slow Super Bowl weekend, behind the spy thriller “Argylle.”Matthew Vaugn’s “Argylle” got first place with only $6.5 million, which brings its running domestic total to $28.8 million in two weekends. The $200 million production is Apple’s first major theatrical flop.Universal Pictures oversaw the North American release for the streamer, where it is playing in 3,605 locations.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Matthew Vaughn’s spy thriller “Argylle” emerged victorious over newcomer “Lisa Frankenstein” in a moribund box office with both films struggling to show signs of life. “Argylle” claimed the No. 1 spot again with $6.5 million from 3,605 North American venues, marking a steep 62% decline from its disappointing debut.

Bad Bunny is hitting the town!

widespread drug abuse an extremely relevant issue in America? Obviously. But just as screamingly apparent is that a kilo of deflating, predictable movies about narcotics and dope are not going to bring hesitant audiences back to struggling movie theaters.

Super Bowl weekend, despite its damper on Sunday business, was frame that could still yield results, even for films aimed at dudes, i.e. 2015 when the 6th weekend of American Sniper drummed up $30.7M, or 2020 when the third weekend of Bad Boys for Life did $17.6M.

Naman Ramachandran Viacom18 and Marflix’s Bollywood actioner “Fighter” was the highest grossing film of the weekend at the global box office, with box office revenues of $25.1 million, according to data from ComScore. The film, directed by Siddharth Anand, whose previous film, Shah Rukh Khan starrer “Pathaan,” was one of the biggest Indian hits of 2023, stars Bollywood A-listers Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor. “Fighter” revolves around the Indian Air Force and released on Thursday, Jan.

led by “ The Beekeeper ” in its third week of release.Amazon MGM Studios’ Jason Statham actioner earned $7.4 million to take the No. 1 spot, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Toho International’s Godzilla Minus One – with an Oscar nom and a $2.6 million estimated three-day gross – was no. 10 at the U.S. box office in week 9, and hit a milestone Friday. The giant radioactive reptile, on 2,001 screens, became the third highest-grossing foreign-language film Stateside passing Hero (2002, $53.7m) and Parasite (2019, $53.4m).

Queer Eye cast mate Tan France.The eighth season of the popular Netflix makeover show landed on Wednesday (January 24) and marks interior designer Berk’s last season as part of the Fab Five alongside France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness and Karamo Brown.Berk confirmed the eighth season of Queer Eye would be his last in November. In a post on X announcing his departure, he described the decision to leave the show as a “necessary one”.It had been rumoured that a feud had emerged between Berk and France. A report on US Weekly claimed Berk was “asked to leave” the Netflix series “because he wasn’t vibing with the cast”.“There were many challenges with scheduling [and] there was a loss of interest from Bobby filming the show,” an insider told the outlet.

EXCLUSIVE: Tatanka Means (Killers of the Flower Moon) has landed a heavily recurring role in the Netflix drama series Ransom Canyon, based on the book series by Jodi Thomas. He joins previously announced Josh Duhamel, Minka Kelly, James Brolin, Eoin Macken and Lizzy Greene.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Concrete Utopia,” the highly regarded drama-thriller that was South Korea’s Oscars contender and one of the biggest box office hits of 2023, has scored a streaming release in North America. Rakuten Viki, which specializes in Asian content, has licensed exclusive rights to the film in the U.S. and Canada and will begin streaming it to North American audiences from Friday.

Before making Past Lives, writer-director Celina Song says with a laugh, she didn’t even know how to read a call sheet. Flash forward a year, though, from the A24 romantic drama’s world premiere at Sundance, and she’s landed an Original Screenplay nom for her debut feature.

EXCLUSIVE: India’s box office revenue reached a record $1.47BN (Rs122.3BN) in 2023, a 15% increase over the previous year, according to a report from Mumbai-based Ormax Media. But growth was partly due to rising ticket prices as admissions have still not recovered to the same level as 2019. 

KISS OF LIFE have said that they would love to collaborate with Sabrina Carpenter and Usher.KISS OF LIFE recently made a guest appearance on the DIVE Studios talk show The Daebak Show, hosted by Korean-American singer Eric Nam. During their time on the episode, the quartet revealed the artists that would love to collaborate with, including Sabrina Carpenter and Usher.Member Belle mentioned Carpenter as her “dream collaborator”, citing her love for songs such as ‘Because I like a boy’, ‘feather’, ‘Mona Lisa’ and more, before giving the singer a personal shout-out.Nam then echoed Belle’s sentiments, saying that he especially likes Carpenter’s hit song ‘Nonsense’.

Pixies and Modest Mouse have announced their joint 2024 US tour with Cat Power which is set to kick off later this year.The co-headlining tour will see Power provide opening support and is set to kick off on Friday, May 31 at the Firefly Distillery in Charleston, South Carolina. From there, the are set to make stops in major cities such as Nashville, Atlanta, Pittsburg, Toronto, Philadelphia, Queens, Mansfield, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Austin, Irving and more.The tour will wrap up on Sunday, June 30 at Fiddler’s Green in Denver, Colorado.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Sound of Freedom,” the indie action-drama film that earned some $184 million at the North American box office, has set a significant theatrical release in South Korea. Angel Studios, the crowd-funded Utah-based production and distribution firm behind the film, initially set up direct-to-theater releases for the film’s first international outings in the U.K., Australia and Latin America. In Korea, rights have been licensed in conventional fashion by the N.E.W. – Contents Panda group, which plans to give the picture a release from Feb. 21, 2024.

Cignature has addressed plans for its future with member Belle set to join the upcoming girl group, UNIS.Earlier this week, Belle won a spot on the upcoming K-pop girl group UNIS after ranking eighth on the South Korean reality TV singing competition, Universe Ticket. The group are expected to be active for two-and-a-half years.In response to her spot in the new group, her agency C9 Entertainment has addressed the future of Cignature, saying that the act have been “reorganised into a 6-member system” for the duration of Belle’s tenure in UNIS, as translated by Soompi.“They released their fourth mini-album in August 2023, achieving their best performance since debut, while diversifying individual activities for each member,” the agency added.

EXCLUSIVE: Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has achieved his best global box office in a decade with Cannes Jury Prize winner Fallen Leaves which has racked up a total gross of $12.4M, according to figures released by its producers.