‘Glass’ Stays No. 1 in Theaters Over Slow Super Bowl Weekend

(Bloomberg) -- Universal Pictures’ thriller “Glass” remained No. 1 at the box office during a slow stretch for Hollywood releases, keeping its crown for a third straight weekend. Its biggest competition was the Super Bowl, which routinely takes a big bite out of ticket sales.

• The film, a sequel with James McAvoy, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, brought in $9.55 million from North American theaters, Comscore Inc. said. Analysts were predicting that amount. The film has taken in $200.2 million worldwide -- solid for a movie that cost just $20 million.

Key Insights

• The industry is off to a weak start to 2019, with year-to-date ticket sales down 16 percent from a year ago, according to Comscore. January is typically among the slowest months, with few releases from the major studios.
• February doesn’t look much better, even though the schedule holds promise with potentially big family movies like “The Lego Movie 2” and a sequel to “How to Train Your Dragon.” That’s because “Black Panther” fueled a huge February 2018, meaning theaters are looking at two down months to start the year.
• “Glass” faced competition from only one new wide release: Sony Pictures’ “Miss Bala,” a crime drama shot in Mexico. It brought in $6.86 million to place third, beating Box Office Pro’s estimate of $6.5 million. Just 28 percent of critics recommended the picture.

Get More

• See weekend box-office forecasts from BoxOfficePro.
• See Rotten Tomatoes ratings for top movies.

--With assistance from Hailey Waller.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Golum in Los Angeles at rgolum@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Kevin Miller

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.