Box Office: February 8-10

There were no expectations of the second LEGO movie capturing the box office the way the first did as The Batman LEGO Movie wasn’t as strong nor was Ninjago, though I think all three movies are a great deal of fun with varying levels of replay value. The new film landed this weekend with a $35 million debut but coming in at $20 million under expectations – which is not a good sign since that was already $15 million under what the original did. The weekend was actually fairly busy overall with several new releases but it proved hard to get parents out with kids to catch the film. The film is getting a lot of good praise with an A- CinemaScore so it has some potential for legs, especially with few other kids films coming up in the short term.

What Men Want landed in second place with a $19 million take on its $20 million budget and it should do fairly well overall even with weak reviews by critical as it got an A- CinemaScore as well. It’s likely to cross the $50 million mark domestically when all is said and done and that’s not bad at all.

Liam Neeson has had his struggles in the media recently but Cold Pursuit actually exceeded expectations slightly with a $10.8 million debut. It’s not going to have legs with a B- CinemaScore and playing to older and more male audiences. We’d still hazard that it’ll top out around $30 million by the time it wraps up its domestic run.

The Prodigy also landed this weekend and the film from Orion Pictures netted $6 million, which is shy of expectations by a few million. What helps is that it has a $6 million budget. What doesn’t help is that it’s an older crowed with a C+ CinemaScore.

With Valentine’s Day this week, a couple of films are hitting a bit early. as Wednesday see’s the debut of Happy Death Day 2U from Universal in 3,000 screens while Isn’t It Romantic from Warner Bros. New Line side hits 3,300 screens. Fox is hitting fans up with Alita: Battle Angel on Thursday in 3,700 screens. The weekend also has some limited release films out with Birds of Passage, Donnybrook, Hotel by the River, Ruben Brandt – Collector, Sorry Angel, and Fighting with My Family. Check out some trailers below.