Believe it or not, there was a time when Marvel Cinematic Universe movies rarely dropped above 59% in their second weekends of release. Only July MCU titles like Captain America: The First Avenger, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Ant-Man and the Wasp (where people could see these movies during summertime weekdays rather than wait for the weekend) had 60+% declines in their respective second frames. Starting with the MCU’s Phase Four and Five movies, though, these superhero movie blockbusters have regularly plummeted 60+% and even north of 67% at that! The Marvels and Quantumania even had 70+% drops, a staggering change from the days of Black Panther easing 44% in its second frame.
Captain America: Brave New World had another one of those hefty second weekend drops, dropping 68% for a $28.2 million second frame. That’s slightly heavier than the second weekend plummet of Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness from 2022. Sure, Valentine’s Day and President’s Day both gave Brave New World a boost last weekend that would’ve ensured a somewhat large drop. However, a 68% plummet is still bad news for a feature that already opened in firmly “just okay” territory. MCU movies are becoming more and more just for the geeks. No wonder Lionsgate just scheduled Shadow Force to open the same day in May as Thunderbolts*.
With only $141.2 million domestically after ten days, it’s doubtful Brave New World gets to $200 million by the end of its domestic run. Marvel Studios needs to change things up and fast, especially since the next two Avengers movie (which will be bringing back Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom) are frantically leaning so hard on pre-2019 MCU movies.
The Monkey opened to $14.2 million this weekend, down from the opening of the last Osgood Perkins movie (Longlegs) but otherwise a terrific start for a low-budget horror movie. Perkins has now delivered the only two Neon-distributed movies in history to exceed $10 million domestically on opening weekend, both of them in the span of seven months. The Monkey also left all other 2025 horror debuts in the dust, including costlier enterprises like Heart Eyes and Wolf Man.
No real secret why this one proved so successful. The Monkey had an eye-catching visual right there in its title with that wind-up killer primate. Distinctive trailers and posters, not to mention playing on the cultural legacy of both Stephen King and Longlegs, further made it a must-see for horror geeks. There was also a playful energy to the Monkey marketing that made it look far more fun to watch than, say, Wolf Man. Chalk up another hit for Osgood Perkins and yet another sign Neon’s growing more capable of churning out wide release hits.
Here’s a Neon-based fun fact: The Monkey surpassed the domestic bows for all but one A24 movie (Civil War being the sole exception). Neon for years struggled to launch English-language narrative films, but the days of Infinity Pool and bungling Wild Rose’s wide release appear to be in the past, especially if the outfit is handling an Osgood Perkins movie.
Paddington in Peru dropped 49% in its second domestic weekend to gross another $6.5 million for a 10-day domestic total of $25.2 million. No family movies are on the horizon for another month, so Paddington's got a long road ahead of it in North America. Dog Man continued to rebound nicely after its severe second weekend decline with a fourth weekend gross of $5.9 million, down 40% from last frame. With $78.7 million in the bank so far, there's a chance Dog Man just gets past $100 million in North America.
Ne Zha 2, in the fifth spot at the domestic box office for the second straight weekend, dropped 59% this weekend to gross another $3 million. Grossing $14.86 million after ten days of North American play, it's now the second-biggest Chinese movie in history in this territory. Ne Zha 2 is also fast closing in on the $1.9 billion mark globally, an extraordinary run for the biggest animated movie in history at the worldwide box office.
Heart Eyes understandably plummeted now that the Valentine's holiday has come again for another year. Falling 71%, Heart Eyes grossed another $2.85 million for an okay 17-day $26.7 million domestic total. Chhaava cracked the top ten in its second weekend, going up 49% despite losing 107 theaters. Grossing another $2.68 million for a $4.8 million domestic total, this one's shaping up to be a solid performer. Mufasa: The Lion King just won't die in its tenth weekend of domestic play, grossing another $2.5 million (down 41% from last frame). It's now at $245.38 million and stands a good chance of becoming only the 155th movie in history to exceed $250 million at the domestic box office.
Arriving four years after it was shot, The Unbreakable Boy opened to a dismal $2.5 million (currently tied with Mufasa in the weekend estimates). That’s way less than comparable Kingdom Come movies released by Lionsgate or other faith-based features. The non-existent marketing campaign and constant delays for this movie pretty much sealed its fate eons ago. Rounding out the top ten was One of Them Days, which dropped 53% this weekend to gross another $1.40 million for a terrific $46 million domestic total. Love Hurts plummeted 74% this frame and grossed just $1.1 million for an atrocious $14.5 million domestic total.
Becoming Led Zeppelin eased 47% this weekend to gross another $930,000 for a $7.35 million domestic total. This one should hit between $8.5 million and $9 million by the time its domestic run is through, a terrific total harkening back to the domestic finish’s of 2010s documentary hits like Amy and Apollo 11. With the Oscars fast approaching, Best Picture nominee A Complete Unknown dipped 34% this weekend and grossed $750,000 for a $72.29 million total. 2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films eased 13% this weekend to gross another $735,019 for a $2.16 million domestic total. Speaking of Oscar contenders, expanding back into wide release this frame was I'm Still Here, which played in 762 theaters. It grossed $395,000 for a $518 per theater average and a domestic total to date of $4.2 million. Impressively, this Walter Salles directorial effort should match the lifetime domestic cume of last year's Best Picture nominee Anatomy of a Fall.
Cleaner opened to $426,150 from 378 locations for a middling $1,127 per theater average. Though it's already the third-biggest Quiver Distribution movie ever domestically, this is clearly a middling result. The Brutalist had a fine 19% hold this weekend, which led to a 10th weekend gross of $353,074 and a domestic gross of $14.96 million. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants opened in 200 theaters this weekend and grossed a middling $351,000. Neon finally re-expanded Anora (into 408 theaters to be precise) and grossed another $115,250 for a $282 per theater average and $15.57 million domestic lifetime gross. A24 also expanded Parthenope into 139 locations, which was good enough for $97,672 and a $703 per theater average. This Italian feature has now grossed $195,309.
No Other Land continued its robust theatrical run with another $96,100 from just 54 locations for a per theater average of $1,779. It's now grossed $419,666 domestically. Flow, which could take home the Best Animated Feature Oscar this Sunday, expanded into 170 theaters and grossed another $81,900 for a $4.27 million total. Focus Features brought Conclave back into 443 locations this weekend (it's also up for a slew of Oscars on Sunday including Best Picture), though not too many people showed up since Focus has been promoting Conclave's Peacock availability for months. Grossing another $55,000 for a $124 per theater average, Conclave's now grossed $32.23 million domestically and over $100 million worldwide. Huzzah for indie movie successes!
Universal Language expanded into 24 locations in its second weekend of domestic release grossing $46,155 for a $1,923 per theater average. It's now amassed $97,171 in North America. Ex-Husbands opened to $11,000 from a single theater in its debut frame, while Oscar nominee The Seed of the Sacred Fig grossed another $5,500 from 18 locations (for a $305 per theater average) and an $828,493 domestic total.
The top ten movies this weekend grossed just $67 million, a terrible late February total. Yes, this frame was up 31% from this same from last year when Bob Marley: One Love dominated the marketplace again, but those were basement-level box office figures. For comparison’s sake, the February 24-26, 2017 frame had a $103.86 million gross. Yes, Get Out bowed that weekend, but its debut gross was only $5 million more than Brave New World's second-weekend haul. In other words, the gap between the two number one movies wasn't massive.
February 26-28, 2016, meanwhile, (when Deadpool ruled in its third weekend) made $24 million more than this 2025 frame before taking nine years of inflation into account! Though that frame housed infamous box office bomb Gods of Egypt's debut frame (which The Monkey's opening weekend did outgross despite costing significantly less to make), three separate new wide releases each grossed $6+ million that weekend. This frame, meanwhile, only had two new wide releases and one of them couldn’t clear $2.5 million! That 2016 weekend also had NINE movies grossing $4.1+ million each whereas this 2025 frame only had four features exceed that mark.
A dire lack of variety in the 2025 theatrical marketplace, not to mention just a dearth of new films period, is hurting the marketplace. It’s one thing for new releases to scatter when an Avengers: Endgame hits the marketplace. In February 2025, though, fresh films cleared out for Brave New World and now the marketplace is suffering thanks to that Marvel Studios title just falling off a cliff. It really doesn’t look like the 2025 domestic marketplace is going to truly pick up steam until April, so prepare yourselves for five more weeks of really rough business.