PC: Bloomberg

During its second weekend in theatres, “The Woman King” maintained its position at the box office.

From Friday through Sunday, American ticket sales for the Sony movie are projected to total $11.2 million, a 42% decline from its opening weekend. Blockbuster movies typically experience a 50% to 70% decline in attendance between their first and second weekends.

The 42% second-weekend dip of “The Woman King” is “proof that it’s in it for the long haul,” according to Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. As anticipated, positive word of mouth and anticipation around the awards season have helped the movie become a must-see event.

Box office experts predict that “The Woman King” will quickly recover its $50 million production cost and has the potential to reach a wider audience as word of mouth grows, much like Paramount and Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick” has recently.

Additionally, the $35 million production budgeted movie “Don’t Worry Darling” from Warner Bros. is anticipated to earn $19.2 million in its first domestic weekend.

During a slow period in the theatrical calendar, “The Woman King” and “Don’t Worry Darling” are a welcome boost to business for theatres as well as for studios constructing their pipeline of original content and adult-oriented dramas. Although low-budget movies like this don’t have huge box office success, they give theatres much-needed supplemental income.

In comparison to pre-pandemic days, there will be fewer theatrical releases in 2022 due to production delays brought on by the coronavirus outbreak and the urge to put material on streaming services. Only 50 movies have been domestically released in more than 2,000 venues so far this year, which is a decrease of roughly 40% from 2019.

Small- to mid-budget films are just as crucial to the theatrical ecology as the big-budget franchise movies that rule the box office charts. The domestic box office would miss out on billions of dollars in ticket sales without them.

Shawn Robbins, chief analyst of BoxOffice.com, called “The Woman King” “yet another fantastic example of original material engaging with and inspiring moviegoers on its track for a lengthy box office run that could be capped with award season nominations in the months ahead.”