Tom Holland and ‘Uncharted’ hold steady at box office

For the eighth time in the last two and a half months, a movie starring Tom Holland is No. 1 at the box office.

The Sony Pictures videogame adaptation ‘Uncharted,’ starring Holland and Mark Wahlberg, led ticket sales in the US for its second weekend of release with $23.3 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

‘Uncharted’, out in UAE cinemas, held well, too, dropping a modest 46 per cent from its $44 million debut. In two weeks, it’s made $83.4 million in US and Canadian theatres.

‘Uncharted,’ a long-in-development adventure film about lost treasure that cost $120 million to make, is packing theatres overseas, too. With a mid-March China release date still looming, ‘Uncharted’ added $35 million overseas, bringing its worldwide gross to $226.4 million so far.

The film’s robust international sales includes box office from Russia, where studios have thus far elected to keep movies in release after the crisis with Ukraine earlier in the week.

On the heels of the blockbuster business for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ the success of ‘Uncharted’ has minted the expanding star power of the 25-year-old Holland. ‘No Way Home,’ which led the box office six times over December and January, is still one of the top draws in theaters. This weekend, it landed in third place with $5.8 million, edging it closer to $800 million in domestic ticket sales.

While both ‘Uncharted’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ have benefitted from brand recognition, rarely has one movie star reigned so much over a 12-week span in theatres.

Star power, too, has kept the Channing Tatum-led ‘Dog’ at the number two spot, which is also screening in the UAE. The MGM release, which Tatum co-directed with Reid Carolin, declined just 32 per cent with $10.1 million in its second weekend of release. So far, the film — in which Tatum plays an Army Ranger paired with an Army dog on a road trip — has made $30.9 million against a $15 million budget.

With the release of Warner Bros.’ ‘The Batman’ coming on Friday, few new wide releases opened in theatres — and the ones that did struggled to make an impression.

The Foo Fighters’ horror-comedy ‘Studio 666,’ released by Open Road and Briarcliff Entertainment, went the widest, opening in 2,306 theatres. The movie, starring Dave Grohl and company as themselves while making their 10th record in a haunted house, debuted with $1.5 million.

The repeated delayed ‘Cyrano,’ starring Peter Dinklage, launched in 797 theatres in the US and totaled $1.4 million for MGM. The musical, directed by Joe Wright, has been warmly received by critics, might have benefitted from a boost in Oscar nominations, but after several major Golden Globe nominations, it landed only a nod for costume design.

The new release that performed best is five decades old.