Typically, MLK Day weekend is a box office bonanza, but it seems that a potential, would-be blockbuster in the form of Wolf Man is seriously underperforming, cratering Hollywood’s hopes for a high-grossing weekend. Indeed, some box office forecasters believed the film would open in the $30 million range (we predicted a much more modest $17 million), but in the end, the film will be lucky to pass $12 million this weekend. In fact, at its current rate, the film won’t even come close to topping the weekend, with Mufasa: The Lion King in line for a solid $16 million gross, while the well-reviewed One of Them Days (which our own Tyler Nichols surprisingly loved), will come in second-place with Deadline estimating $14 million.

So what happened? It seems horror audiences were put off by Leigh Whannell’s grounded take on the classic monster, which ditched almost all of the elements people associated with (and loved) about the character – meaning no full moons or silver bullets. The result is a bit of a bore, and the CinemaScore has been a toxic C-minus, which suggests Wolf Man’s word-of-mouth is howlingly bad. Truth be told, Whannell’s movie is derivative of other, better horror films like The Fly. Why bother making a Wolf Man movie if it won’t feature the elements of the character that people love? Whannell’s take emphasizes generational trauma passed down by fathers, but was that a movie anyone needed or wanted right now? The Blumhouse movie simply isn’t scary or particularly entertaining, even if it is well-acted by star Christopher Abbott, who will likely emerge from this relatively unscathed.

Meanwhile, last week’s champ, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is down about 50% for an $8 million weekend, with it looking like it will be narrowly edged out by Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Thieves is performing nearly identically to the first film, meaning it should turn a nice profit for Lionsgate, who’s badly in need of a win, even if it’s a single or double rather than a home run at this point.

We’ll be back tomorrow with the full box office wrap-up!

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