It's Oscars weekend, which normally doesn't mean Hollywood falls asleep at the wheel delivering big new release movies. On March 7, 2010, the 82nd Academy Awards drew 41.71 million viewers while Alice in Wonderland opened to a massive $116 million domestically. As late as the last weekend of February 2019, the Oscars ceremony and a major new wide release like How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World co-existed without a problem. This frame, though, Hollywood abandoned the box office (save for one major new wide release) as the 97th Academy Awards transpired. The result was the year's second lowest-grossing domestic frame to date.
This was almost certainly not an attempt to send more viewers to the small screen. After all, this time last year, Kung Fu Panda 4 debuted the same weekend the 96th Academy Awards aired. This was just a result of the poor scheduling that's plagued the first nine domestic weekends of 2025. Because of the lack of competition, Captain America: Brave New World dominated the marketplace for the third consecutive weekend, even as its holds remained nothing to write home about. Dropping 47%, Captain America: Brave New World grossed $15 million for a $163.6 million domestic total.
Brave New World had a noticeably better third weekend decline than Quantumania's 60% plunge, but still, this 17-day total is disappointing, no two ways about it. A $185-190 million domestic finish is in the cards, making this one of the lower-grossing MCU titles in North America even before taking inflation into account.
Last Breath opened to a solid $7.8 million this weekend, nothing outstanding but a fine debut for a film that had minimal buzz surrounding it going into the weekend. Marketing for this one nicely emphasized Woody Harrelson and an easily digestible rescue mission plotline, which all helped it snag older viewers looking for some nail-biter cinema Last Breath's a good example of why we need more "just a movie" titles in the marketplace, ya never know when one of these might outperformer their $4-6 million domestic opening weekend expectations. Last Breath also continues a nice winning streak for Focus Features hot on the heels of Conclave and Nosferatu.
Despite some divisive audience responses, The Monkey held fine for an R-rated horror/comedy, dropping 55% in its second weekend. Grossing another $6.37 million, The Monkey's now amassed $24.6 million after ten days of domestic play. Not too shabby for the $10 million budgeted title. Paddington in Peru, meanwhile, eased 31% and grossed $4.5 million for a $31.35 million domestic total. Fellow family movie holdover Dog Man eased 28% to gross another $4.2 million for an $84.06 million domestic total.
Mufasa: The Lion King, still playing in 1,705 theaters in its 11th weekend of release, eased 25% this frame to gross another $1.9 million for a $247.99 million domestic total. It's also now surpassed $700 million worldwide, a solid feat for a movie that seemed DOA when it opened to just $35 million domestically. Ne Zha 2 dropped 44% this weekend to gross $1.71 million for a $17.91 million total. Heart Eyes dropped 51% this weekend gross another $1.32 million for a $28.88 million domestic total.
One of Them Days eased 33% this weekend to gross another $925,000 for a $47.47 million domestic total. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- rounded out the top ten with a $916,664 bow from 784 locations. Over Oscars weekend, A Complete Unknown was once again the highest-grossing 97th Academy Award Best Picture nominee over an early 2025 weekend. This time, Unknown went up 13% to gross another $904,000 for a domestic total of $73.7 million. Riff Raff debuted to $901,000 from 1,004 locations for a middling $897 per theater average. My Dead Friend Zoe opened to just $755,000 at 780 theaters, another middling debut for a Briarcliff Entertainment release.
Becoming Led Zeppelin is proving nicely leggy for a music documentary, as it fell only 24% this weekend to gross another $740,000. With $8.62 million in the bank so far, could this crack $10 million domestically? We shall see but this is unquestionably a moneymaker for Sony Pictures Classics.
I'm Still Here grossed $530,000 this frame, a 17% increase over last weekend for a $5.12 million domestic total, putting it ahead of Anatomy of a Fall's lifetime domestic cume. Hooray for foreign-langauge titles doing well domestically! The Brutalist, meanwhile, went up 24% to gross another $439,077 for a $15.6 million domestic total.
The Accidental Getaway Driver bowed in four locations this frame and grossed $41,000 for a $10,250 per theater average. Unholy Song opened to $21,485 from 20 theaters for a $1,074 per theater average while Rats! debuted to $18,762 from 14 locations for a $1,340 per theater average.
The top ten movies this weekend grossed an atrocious $43 million, just an absolutely abysmal haul. The February 25-27, 2022 frame from three years ago was $12 million better than this for God's sake and that also had a dearth of major new wide releases! Plus, the first two months of 2022 were almost entirely devoid of major new releases since the late 2021 COVID scares sent Hollywood into a spiral of delays. No such excuses exist here, the major studios could’ve jam-packed this weekend with major releases.
The lowest grossing domestic weekend of 2009 (16 years ago) was the September 11-13, 2009 was the $71.45 million haul when Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself topped the marketplace. Ten years ago, the lowest weekend cume was the $58.4 million haul of October 30-November 1, 2015, when The Martian returned to the top spot. Remember, that frame was hindered by Halloween falling on a Saturday! In 2005, no weekend cume fell beneath $65 million for the entire year. Don’t forget, that year was one where the box office was so drastically down from previous years that it inspired cries that the sky was falling on the entire theatrical exhibition business! Meanwhile, here’s the ninth frame of 2025 delivering just $43 million, staggeringly below domestic weekend lows of previous years before inflation’s taken into account!
Alas, when there’s nothing in theaters, audiences won’t come out. Worst of all, this problem won’t get solved in the next two weeks and even late March Disney tentpole Snow White isn’t tracking anywhere nearly as strongly as past live-action Disney Animation remakes. The marketplace is in a rut entirely dictated by the whims of movie studios refusing to put out new titles into the marketplace. Send O’Dessa, The Parenting, the new Bridget Jones movie, and other streaming titles to theaters! Better yet, put out those shelved movies like Fixed, Coyote vs. Acme, and Distant. Acquire indie features that have garnered buzz like A Nice Indian Boy, Twinless, and more. Give audiences a reason to show up to the big screen! The movies exist and the box office needs them.
Producing a frame as weak as this is just shameful and a testament to how much a drastically shrunk-down movie studio landscape is killing theatrical American cinema. We cannot survive with 20th Century Fox (yes, I’m deadnaming the studio Disney killed) produced 20% (at best) of the movies it used to pre-pandemic. Nor can Zaslav’s shell of Warner Bros. sustain the theatrical marketplace. This doesn’t have to be the norm. Moviegoer enthusiasm for theatrical cinema is only as subdued as studios allow it to be.