Shortly after the New Year, Los Angeles, one of the most popular movie theaters in North America, suffered a severe wildfire disaster, which forced many theaters to close, directly affecting the box office performance last weekend. The total North American box office for the three-day weekend was approximately US$77 million, a 23% decrease from the same period last year.

Lionsgate released a total of 22 new films in 2024, but none of them won the first place in the weekend box office chart at the opening, which also led to its annual North American box office revenue of only 252.2 million US dollars, a decline of 57% compared with 2023. This decline has turned around in the first month of 2025: the action film "Den of Thieves 2" starring Gerard Butler was released in 3,003 theaters in North America last weekend, and received a box office of 15.5 million US dollars at the opening, finally ranking first in the weekend box office chart, and the long-released "The Lion King: The Legend of Mufasa" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" are behind it.

Poster of "Top Secret War"

"The Detective" is the sequel to "Den of Thieves" which was released in January 2018. It retains the original cast including the director and the leading actors, and continues to tell the story of the chase between detective Nick and gangster Donny. Part of the plot of the film is based on the diamond theft case of the "Pink Panther" criminal group in Belgium in 2003. That year, the opening box office of "Den of Thieves" was 15.3 million US dollars. This time the sequel has an increase of about 200,000 US dollars, which seems to be a small improvement. However, it should be noted that the North American movie ticket price in 2018 was about 20% cheaper than it is now. In other words, the actual number of audiences who went to the theater to watch the sequel must be less than that in 2018.

Seven years ago, Den of Thieves finally earned $45 million at the North American box office. This time, Forbidden Kingdom has a chance to replicate this achievement, but whether it can eventually exceed the $50 million mark is worth watching. You should know that in the whole year of 2024, no Lionsgate film had a total North American box office of more than $500 million.

In addition, the top ten new films in the weekend box office list include the Indian film "Game Changer" ranked ninth. The film was introduced by Dallas-based Shloka Entertainments to 800 theaters in North America and earned $1.9 million at the box office.

The Last Dancer poster

The tenth place in the weekend box office list is the drama film "The Last Showgirl" directed by Gia Coppola and starring Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis. Pamela Anderson, 57 years old this year, is a famous Hollywood sexy idol in the 1990s. Her representative works include the TV series "Baywatch". The story of this film tells the difficult choice of an elderly showgirl when facing unemployment. In this award season, Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis were nominated for many awards with this film, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Film and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

The distributor of "The Last Dancer" is Roadside Attractions, a film company that distributes independent art films for Lionsgate Films Holdings. "The Last Dancer" opened in 870 theaters in North America over the weekend and earned $1.533 million at the box office, which is a pretty good result for a low-budget film that cost less than $2 million to produce.

Better Man, a biographical film about the famous singer Robbie Williams, released by Paramount, was officially released in 1,291 theaters in North America over the weekend, but only earned $1.05 million at the box office, failing to make the top ten of the box office charts. Moreover, even in the UK, the hometown of the former member of the globally popular pop group Take That, the film's earlier opening box office was only $1.9 million, and the cumulative box office since its release at the end of 2024 has only been $4.7 million. According to media reports, the film cost as much as $110 million to produce, and Paramount bought its North American distribution rights for $25 million. I'm afraid it will be the first movie to lose money at the box office in 2025.