{"id":542318,"date":"2026-01-25T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/542318\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T18:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:12:09","slug":"box-office-chris-pratts-mercy-unseats-avatar-fire-and-ash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/542318\/","title":{"rendered":"Box Office: Chris Pratt’s ‘Mercy’ Unseats ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMercy<\/a> me.<\/p>\n

\n\tA massive winter storm impacting much of the U.S. is taking a toll on the domestic box office as numerous communities and cities advised citizens to stay home, and more than 400 hundred theaters closed. Overall revenue is expected to fall to the lowest point of the year to date, while it\u2019s also the first weekend to come in behind the same frame in 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe weekend\u2019s winner is Timur Bekmambetov<\/a>\u2018s new thriller Mercy, starring Chris Pratt as a man who is on trial for murdering his wife. In a chilling development, he learns his fate rests in the hands of an artificial intelligence judge. On Saturday, MGM Amazon Studios reported an estimated $12.6 million opening before the extent of theater closures was known. <\/p>\n

\n\tOverseas, it started off with a promising $11.6 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn North America, the storm isn\u2019t Mercy\u2018s only challenge. Critics have snubbed the film<\/a>, while audience exits are only so-so, including a B- CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\n\tMercy does get bragging rights for being the film that finally toppled James Cameron\u2019s Avatar: Fire and Ash <\/a>after ruling the roost the five previous weekends (several years ago, Avatar: The Way of Water kept the crown for seven weekends).<\/p>\n

\n\tFire & Ash, from 20th Century Fox, came in No. 2 finish with an estimated $7 million, putting its domestic cume at $378.5 million for a global haul of $1 billion. And it topped the international chart with a promising $11.6 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tFellow Disney animated blockbuster Zootopia 2, holding at No. 3, brought in $5.7 million as the record-breaking film<\/a> notched another milestone in crossing the $400 million mark domestically. (Its global haul is north of an eye-popping $1.7 billion).<\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Paul Feig\u2019s Sydney Sweeney-Amanda Seyfried vehicle\u00a0The Housemaid<\/a>\u00a0also continues to clean up for Lionsgate. It held at No. 4 in its sixth outing with an estimated $4.2 million for a domestic tally of $115.4 million. The female-skewing film has earned a stunning $294.9 milion globally, becoming Feig\u2019s top grossing film, not adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n

\n\tNia DaCosta\u2019s elevated horror-zombie sequel\u00a028 Years Later: The Bone Temple<\/a>\u00a0isn\u2019t so lucky. After opening behind expectations at the MLK Holiday\u00a0box office<\/a>, it\u2019s fell to No.5 in its sophomore outing with $3.6 million for a domestic total of $21.4 million and $46.1 million globally.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fabled box office bump that movies can enjoy after landing top Academy Award nominations has diminished over the years, but it can still be a factor. Josh Safdie\u2019s\u00a0Marty Supreme<\/a>, from A24, had been an\u00a0overperformer <\/a>even before landing 9 top nominations on Jan. 22<\/a>, including best picture<\/a> and best actor\u00a0Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet <\/a>(most are betting he wins). This weekend, the film is set to come in No. 6 with an estimated $3.5 million, a drop of just 35 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat could be the second-best hold of any film in the top behind Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s\u00a0Hamnet<\/a>, another Oscar frontrunner that landed 8 nominations for Focus Features after winning\u00a0best drama at the Golden Globes<\/a>\u00a0Jan. 11. The arthouse pic, which started off playing in select runs in November, expanded into a total of 1,276 theaters this weekend. Moving into the top 10, it grossed $2 million for a domestic haul of $17.6 million. Spielberg and Sam Mendes are hitting the awards campaign trail hard for Zhao.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe only other new release of the weekend was Return to Silent Hill, from Chris McGurk\u2019s Cineverse Entertainment. The reboot landed with a thud, earning just $3.3 million. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film has a total investment of only $3.5 mil, so it will be very profitable for us and a great addition to our library and streaming channels,\u201d McGurk said in a statement. \u201cThe weather clearly was big factor this weekend and impacted the box office significantly for everyone. Hopefully the industry will get some of this missed demand back during this week and next weekend if the weather improves.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tStaying relatively high up on the chart is an ongoing special 25th-year anniversary rerelease of Peter Jackson\u2019s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Warner Bros. and Fathom are partnering on the event. The three films collectively brought in another $6.7 million domestically and $12 million overseas for a cume of $18.7 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tJan. 25, 8:15 a.m<\/strong>.: Updated with revised numbers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was originally published Jan. 4 a.m. at 11:23\u00a0am<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercy me. A massive winter storm impacting much of the U.S. is taking a toll on the domestic…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":532720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[24315,207,171,84736,148844,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-542318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","tag-box-office","tag-entertainment","tag-marty-supreme","tag-mercy","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115957094343555570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}