Box Office Insider: ‘Glass,’ ‘The Upside,’ And ‘Aquaman’ Hold Their Ground |

Each week on Atom Insider, we break down the box office numbers for all of the biggest films opening in theaters. This week, two high-concept genre films struggled to find an audience, as superhero films once again dominated the top of the box office.

This Week’s Top Earner (For The Second Week In A Row) – ‘Glass’

Universal’s Glass is proving to be a bona fide hit despite a low budget of $20 million and negative reviews. In its second week, Glass held on to the #1 spot for domestic box office with a take of $19 million. That’s a 52.8% drop from last week despite adding three theaters. But thanks to an impressive gain of $23 million overseas, Glass is easily catching up to the success of its predecessor Split with a worldwide total of $162.6 million.

This once again proves that word of mouth (and key reviews from prominent critics) can defy consensus and aggregate scores, especially when audiences consider a film interesting because it’s polarizing, not just because it’s been declared “good” universally. With three back-to-back box office hits, Shyamalan is no doubt back in the good graces of studios looking to finance his next project for this very reason.

Second Place – ‘The Upside’

Once again, STX added more theaters for The Upside, which has paid off well for them with a hold on the #2 spot and a solid $12.2 million domestically for the weekend. At $69.2 million worldwide, The Upside is already STX’s third highest-grossing film ever.

That said, the film isn’t doing quite as well overseas. The Upside only brought in $1.1 million this past weekend in 38 markets. The film might pick up steam over the next few weeks, but at this point, its strong domestic run should be more than enough to bring in a profit.

And Third – ‘Aquaman’

Jason Momoa as Aquaman

As we expected last week, Aquaman is now officially the most financially successful DC film ever, surpassing The Dark Knight Rises. It’s now made $1.09 billion worldwide and $316.5 million domestically after six weeks. It’s also managed to maintain the #3 spot despite competition from a family-friendly fantasy movie with great reviews.

The film brought in $7.3 million domestically this weekend, just narrowly beating out The Kid Who Would be King ($7.2 million). That’s only a 27% drop despite the film losing 341 theaters. Jason Momoa is now truly the “king” of the DC films.

Rounding Out The Rest Of The Box Office

Fox’s The Kid Who Would Be King, the latest film from Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) opened at #4 this week despite strong reviews from critics and good word of mouth. The reported budget is $59 million, so at only $10.4 million worldwide so far, the film will need a stronger showing in the UK next month to make up ground. Still, with those strong reviews and positive buzz, it could have legs that will carry it into February and help break even.

After dropping a spot last week, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse managed to keep swinging at #5 this past weekend. And that’s after losing 329 theaters. It brought in $6.1 million (an 18% drop) in the U.S., pushing its global box office to $338.1 million.

We mentioned last week that Green Book slowly climbed the rankings thanks to awards buzz, and that momentum has sped up big time. Universal added 1,518 theaters to the ’60s-set dramedy, and the film has now made it to #6 in its 11th week at the box office. It made $5.4 million domestically, which means it’s the only Best Picture contender for the Oscars in the Top 10 right now. The film has so far made $59.3 million worldwide.

A Dog’s Way Home dropped one spot to #7 this week after bringing in $5.2 million, a worse decline in both respects than last week, to be sure. It’s now made $41.3 million worldwide off of its $18 million budget.

And then there’s Serenity, which opened this week at #8 despite a recognizable cast and acclaimed director. Despite some polarized curiosity surrounding this film’s perceived “so bad it’s good” concept from some critics and audiences, it only made $4.8 million domestically in over 2,500 theaters.

Escape Room dropped two spots this week to #9, signaling its inevitable, graceful exit from the Top 10 in its fourth week with $4.2 million. And despite debuting at #4 last week, Dragon Ball Super: Broly fell all the way to #10 with just $3.6 million (a 63% drop) after losing 133 theaters.

Mary Poppins Returns, Bumblebee, and On the Basis of Sex fell off the Top 10 this week. In fact, the only awards contender climbing in the Top 20 right now (besides Green Book) is The Favourite, which added over 1,000 theaters and made $2.5 million this weekend. That brought it up 5 spots from last week to #13.

Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice added theaters as well, but they both dropped at least one spot. A Star is Born refreshed its run with 777 more theaters, but it stayed put at #20. And If Beale Street Could Talk actually lost 412 theaters, but it only dropped three spots to #19.

Check back with Atom Insider later this week as we preview all the new releases hitting theaters this Friday. You can get tickets for all the movies in theaters now with Atom Tickets.