Summary

The domestic box office has broken a 2020s record with 17 movies grossing over $1 million during the second weekend in January. Mean Girls tops the box office with $28 million, followed by The Beekeeper with $16.7 million and Wonka with $8.4 million. This the first time since 2019 that the second weekend in January has seen this many movies reach $1 million.

Mean Girls and Wonka, among other new movies, have helped the domestic box office beat a major record. Both movies are wide-release musicals, with Mean Girls adapting the 2018 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from the 2004 teen comedy hit. Wonka is an original musical that stars Timothée Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka in a story that is a prequel to the 1971 Roald Dahl adaptation Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Per Deadline, while the Mean Girls release has taken No. 1 at the domestic box office, 16 other movies have grossed over $1 million during its opening weekend. This is the first time that the second weekend in January has had that many movies hit that mark since 2019, when 18 movies grossed over $1 million. The Top 5 for this weekend are Mean Girls ($28 million), The Beekeeper ($16.7 million), Wonka ($8.4 million), Anyone But You ($6.9 million), and Migration ($6.2 million).

The 2024 Box Office Is Still Looking Bleak Overall

Something that makes this record even more impressive is the fact that the Mean Girls musical and other releases earned less than they could have this weekend, because some Midwest theaters were closed due to Winter Storm Gerri. However, the box office prevailed, sending a cavalcade of titles including Aquaman 2, Night Swim, The Boys in the Boat, The Book of Clarence, The Iron Claw, and Guntur Kaaram past the $1 million milestone. Below, check out this weekend’s total compared with the number of $1 million movies in the second week of January over the past several years:

Year # of $1M Movies Highest-Grossing Title 2023 17 Mean Girls ($28 million) 2022 7 Scream ($30 million) 2021 4 Wonder Woman 1984 ($2.9 million) 2020 13 1917 ($37 million) 2019 18 The Upside ($20.4 million)

However, it remains to be seen if January can continue showing this much box office power. Many of those $1 million movies are 2023 holdovers, and as they drop off the chart, there aren’t many major 2024 releases that will take their place in the coming weeks. While February sees the release of the Henry Cavill spy comedy Argylle and the Marvel movie Madame Web, the next major blockbuster that has more or less guaranteed legs is March’s Dune: Part Two.

Overall, the Mean Girls and Wonka box office success is going to be followed by a dearth of major wide releases throughout the year. This is partly due to delays from the 2023 Hollywood strikes in which writers and then actors fought for fair pay, delaying production and promotion for many in-progress movies. Although the strikes are now over, many major releases have fled to 2025, leaving a largely barren year in search of major hits.

Source: Deadline