The planetary reboot of the pandemic — thanks, anti-vaxxers/anti-maskers/morons — means that most major movie releases have been yanked off the schedule of what is already a traditionally slow month at the box office.
“The 355” and “Scream” and “Old Guys Get Kicked in the Crotch” (“Jackass”) are about the only wide opening films to come our way this month.
As expected, the mediocre women-in-action thriller “The 355” opened with a fizzle. $4.8 million isn’t all that.
That just edged “The King’s Man,” which opened Christmas and isn’t doing all that well, either. It’s earned $74 million worldwide, another $3.27 million of that coming this weekend.
“The Matrix” remains a corpse, rotting through another $1.86 million. It did better overseas, about $35 million in north America, another $90 abroad. It lost about a third of its screens.

On the upside, “Sing 2” pulled in another $11-12 million. That pushes it over $100 million. It will pass “Encanto” by month’s end. Disney’s latest has lost most of its screens and peaked out just over $112 domestically.
“American Underdog” cleared $2.41 million this weekend. It will probably finish its run at month’s end with about $26 million. Not awful, but not all that.
“West Side Story” did about $1.4 million.
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” added another $1.14.
“Licorice Pizza” earned just over $1 million, and is losing screens. One thing that helps underperformers like it is the fact that major releases have pulled out of January. It’ll stick around, even in its weakened state, until Oscar nominations are announced.
That goes for “Licorice,” “C’mon, C’mon,” “West Side Story” and “House of Gucci,” which eeked over the $50 million mark at long last this weekend.
Figures are coming through via Exhibitor Relations and Box Office Pro.
The winner of the weekend, of course? “Spider-Man: No Way Home” pulled in another $33 million and change. I tellya, that Willem Dafoe/Alfred Molina fanbase will not be denied.