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Box Office Predictions: Rinse And Repeat With ‘Mean Girls’ Again Taking #1

Weekend Box Office Predictions: January 19th, 2024 - January 21st, 2024

After debuting in first place last weekend with respective three-day and four-day holiday weekend grosses of $28.64 million and $33.61 million, Paramount's Mean Girls is set to remain in first place at the domestic box office this weekend. On the average, critical reviews for Mean Girls have been good, but not great, and the film looks to be going over fairly similarly with audiences after receiving a B rating on CinemaScore. On Tuesday, Mean Girls did begin to show some slowing at the daily box office, but that likely has more to do with the film's significant appeal with teens and young adults, especially given that Mean Girls didn't display all that much initial front-loading over opening weekend. Mean Girls and holdovers in general will also be helped out this weekend by this weekend's only new wide release being Bleecker Street's I.S.S. (this weekend also sees Disney / Searchlight's Poor Things expand to wide release). BoxOfficeReport is predicting that Mean Girls will decline a respectable 50.1 percent from last weekend to take first place with $14.3 million.

Amazon MGM Studio's The Beekeeper is coming off of stronger than expected respective three-day and four-day holiday starts of $16.58 million and $18.74 million. On the average, critical reviews for The Beekeeper have also been good, but not great. Given the film's solid B+ CinemaScore rating, it appears that The Beekeeper is going over a bit better with audiences than it has with critics. The Beekeeper will be losing a sizable percentage of its IMAX showtimes from last weekend, but will still have some IMAX showtimes this weekend. Back in May of 2021, the Jason Statham led Wrath of Man declined 55.4 percent in its second weekend (to gross $3.70 million). The Beekeeper could potentially have a slightly better second weekend percentage hold this weekend. A 52.9 percent decline would give The Beekeeper a second place take of $7.8 million this weekend.

Moving past last weekend's major new releases, older holdovers in the marketplace should be in store for strong percentage hold this weekend. Warner Bros.'s Wonka could decline just 26.8 percent to hold steady in third place with $6.2 million. Sony's Anyone But You could decrease a similar 25.6 percent to follow in fourth with $5.3 million. Universal and Illumination's Migration, which has been holding up very nicely during the midweek this week, could decline only 23.0 percent from last weekend to round out this weekend's top five with $4.8 million.

Opening in wide release this weekend is Bleecker Street's I.S.S. The R-rated sci-fi thriller was directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and features a cast that includes Ariana DeBose, John Gallagher Jr., Chris Messina, Maria Mashkova, Pilou Asbæk and Costa Ronin. I.S.S. is playing in 2,520 locations this weekend and has Thursday preview shows beginning at 4PM. As a lower-profile wide release, expectations for I.S.S. are modest, but at the same time the film could potentially deliver the largest opening weekend for Bleecker Street in quite some time. BoxOfficeReport is predicting that I.S.S. will debut in sixth place this weekend with $3.9 million.

Read more at BoxOfficeReport.com.