It’s The Little Things that count at the box office. The crime-thriller-drama, starring Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto, landed at number one in the U.S. box office with $4.8 million.
In these pandemic times, those figures are not little at all. In fact, The Little Things’ earnings are being touted as the biggest debut for an R-rated movie since the COVID-19 health crisis began. The numbers for the film set in 1990 Los Angeles and written and directed by John Lee Hancock are considered remarkable since the movie is also being streamed on HBO Max.
The Little Things is the second of 17 movies scheduled by WarnerMedia to open simultaneously in movie houses and the media conglomerate’s streaming service, HBO Max. Wonder Woman 1984 launched the studio’s much-talked about day-and-date release for both platforms in December.
Denzel Washington stars as Deke, a deputy in Central California’s Kern County who is sent by his boss to Los Angeles to pick up some important evidence on a case. Once he arrives, we learn that Deke used to be a hot-shot detective with L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, before a heart attack, a mental health crisis and a divorce sent him out to the country. His evidence-collection assignment is soon called off, but not before he gets embroiled in a serial-killer case being handled by up-and-comer Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), who turns to Deke for assistance.
Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods: A New Age continues its phenomenal run, placing number two even though the family movie is now available on premium video on demand and has been in cineplexes for 10 weeks. The prehistoric era set comedy, voiced by Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage, earned $1.84 million and was even up 2% from the previous weekend.
The performance of The Croods sequel is noteworthy since the film that it beat for second place is Wonder Woman 1984. Gal Gadot’s Amazonian heroine epic, directed by Patty Jenkins, settled for the third berth in the box office ranking with $1.3 million.
Liam Neeson’s The Marksman dropped to fourth slot with $1.25 million. In three weeks, the action-thriller directed by Robert Lorenz has hauled $7.83 million.
With $740,000 in ticket sales, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Monster Hunter grabbed the fifth spot. Ranked sixth is Tom Hanks’ western, the Paul Greengrass-directed News of the World, which raked in $540,000.
Among indie films, Supernova, a drama topbilled by Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, written and directed by Harry Macqueen, opened with $98,670. As it expanded to more theaters, Our Friend, also a drama directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite with Jason Segel, Casey Affleck and Dakota Johnson, took in $135,000.
In the international box office race, Pixar’s Soul stayed strong and maintained its top spots in Russia and Korea. The animated film, voiced by Tina Fey and Jamie Foxx, earned $9.3 million in 13 markets. In China, Soul sold $52.3 million in tickets so far after six weekends and has a chance to dislodge Incredibles 2 as the second most successful Pixar release in that huge territory.
Still in China, the top three films were Kelong Li’s Big Red Envelope, Herman Yau’s Shock Wave 2 and Yan Han’s A Little Red Flower with cumulative earnings of $23 million, $190 million and $210 million, respectively. Featuring Bei-Er Bao and Clara Lee, the comedy Big Red Envelope grabbed the first place again in the weekend chart with $7.5 million.
Overseas, The Croods: A New Age is also doing well as it celebrated crossing the $100 million mark in earnings after taking in $1.3 million for the weekend. With its $1.1 million haul, Wonder Woman 1984 increased its overall international tally to $112.8 million.
Opening in 18 territories, The Little Things managed to draw $2.8 million in ticket sales. The neo-noir on two cops solving a serial killer case did best in Russia and Saudi Arabia where it claimed the number two spot.