'Wonder Woman 1984’ Loses Some Serious Steam in its Sophomore Weekend With $5.5 Million at the Domestic Box Office
Hollywood studios and the nation’s exhibitors weren’t the only ones eager to put 2020 in their rear-view mirrors. But any hopes that the first weekend of 2021 would mark an instant rebound were quickly dashed when the receipts for the New Year’s holiday weekend were tallied.

When it was all said and done, Warner Bros.’ blockbuster hopeful Wonder Woman 1984 lost some serious steam in its sophomore weekend in theaters, pulling in just $5.5 million and nose-diving -67.1% from its relatively muscular Christmas weekend bow where it was the biggest domestic debut of the COVID-19 era since Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. The film's two-week domestic total now stands at $28.5 million.

The PG-13-rated movie’s lackluster second-week performance was no doubt impacted by the studio’s decision to release the film simultaneously on its HBO Max streaming service. Still, without Warner Bros.’ transparency regarding the reporting of hard data on the number of at-home subscribers who watched Wonder Woman 1984 in their living rooms instead of multiplexes, it’s difficult to say just how much of a dent streaming has made on the film’s modest theatrical performance to date.

The good news is that the Patty Jenkins-directed film continues to fare somewhat better overseas, where it has pulled in $90 million after three weeks (it opened in theaters a week earlier abroad), bringing its worldwide cumulative box office to $118.5 million. However, that figure is still a far cry from the movie’s reported $200 million budget—and the original Wonder Woman’s $822 million global haul back in 2017.

Elsewhere, Universal and DreamWorks’ animated sequel The Croods: A New Age got a +24.9% bounce in its sixth week, pulling in $2.2 million in North America and rising to a second-place finish. The PG-rated film, which features the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds, scored a $1,245 per-screen average in 1,751 theaters. It has racked up $34.5 million at the domestic box office to date and another $80.4 million overseas, adding up to an impressive $115 million worldwide gross.

In third place was Universal’s News of the World with $1.7 million in its second weekend. The PG-13-rated Western, starring Tom Hanks as a Civil War veteran escorting a young girl on a perilous frontier journey, dipped -24.9% from its opening session, earning a $876 per-screen average in 1,928 theaters. The film has pulled in $5.4 million at the domestic box office so far. It has not opened internationally yet.

In fourth was Screen Gems’ Monster Hunter, which managed $1.3 million in its third weekend. The action-packed, PG-13-rated video game adaptation starring Milla Jovovich saw a +11.1% pop in ticket sales from the previous weekend, scoring a $691 per-screen average in 1,807 theaters. Monster Hunter has made $5.5 million domestically to date and another $4.8 million internationally, equaling a worldwide box office total of $10.3 million.

Rounding out the Top 5 was the Lionsgate infidelity thriller Fatale with $700,000 in its third weekend. The R-rated film starring Hilary Swank and Michael Ealy got a +6.1% boost from the prior frame and snagged a $591 per-screen average in 1,183 theaters. The film’s total domestic gross now sits at $3.1 million. It has not opened internationally yet. Meanwhile, in just its second weekend, Focus Features’ Promising Young Woman, which is earning awards buzz for star Carey Mulligan, dropped out of the Top 5 in its second weekend, landing in sixth place with $660,000. A buzzy and controversial hit at Sundance, the R-rated revenge thriller earned a $495 per-screen average in 1,333 theaters. It has not opened internationally yet.

The only other newcomer to land in the Top 10 this weekend was Disney’s re-release of Ridley Scott’s visionary 1979 sci-fi thriller Alien, which added $75,000 to the $81.8 million domestic gross-to-date since its original run four decades ago. The R-rated classic The R-rated classic, one of the crown jewels of the 20th Century Fox library, had a $148 per-screen average in 505 theaters.