South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho the acclaimed director of Parasite and Snowpiercer’s most recent film Mickey 17 has begun its box office run with a shaky domestic start with $19.1 million on opening weekend. Mickey 17 focuses on the story of the titular Mickey an ‘expendable’ on a hostile colony planet who dies and is reborn by a cloning machine to carry out dangerous work, starring Robert Pattinson.

While not desirable such a performance was a possibility with sci-fi films having a much harder time at the box office. On top of Mickey 17’s $118 million budget, the Reliance on overseas markets and hopefully a steady performance will help Mickey 17 bounce back into the black. While neither critics nor audiences were raving about Micky 17 like they have a Parasite the film still has enough attraction that it managed to snag an additional $24.5 million for an early international release. With $11.4 million in Bong’s home country of South Korea contributing a little under half of that.

For a current grand total of $53.3 million globally,  Mickey 17 has a high possibility of hanging in for a longer run and not an explosive one. Based on the acclaimed 2022 novel by Edward Ashton Mickey 7 there is also a possibility of an attempt at a sequel if Mickey 17 can climb back on top. Ashton released a sequel to Mickey 7 in the form of Antimatter Blues in 2023 which follows the titular Mickey on an adventure without a backup two years after the events of Mickey 7.

Two other newcomers to the theaters were Night of the Zoopocalypse which came in 10th and Rule Breakers in 9th both with slightly more then 1 million each.

For its fourth week, Brave New World stayed at the top taking 2nd with $8.5 million for the weekend. After premiering last week Last Breath took home 3rd with $4.2 million for its modest haul of a $15 million total. The Monkey hung on to the top five taking 4th with $3.9 million earned for the horror comedy. Rounding out the top five was Paddington in Peru and it’s modest well mannered total of $3.9 pulling in very close to The Monkey in a tie.

Dog Man continued it’s reign as the family animated film with 6th place seeing $3.5 million and a total of $89 million after 6 weeks beating Disney’s Mufasa which took 8th and $1.7 million more home after a 12 week run trying to catch up to it’s predecessor.

In a pleasant surprise, after an incredible Oscar win for the history books, Anora came back with a vengeance to the top ten with $1.9 million for the indie film which over 21 weeks in theaters only grossed $18 million in its limited run, and will likely finally claim more numbers for its audience with more access to the film now that the awards season is has crowned its champion. Sitting at lucky number 7 unless you’re Mickey, Anora’s story is far from over. While some have proposed that the historic indie win triumphed over the originally predicted 2024’s best picture Emilia Pérez it should also be considered that Emilia Pérez had a polarizing response from critics and audiences, especially the Mexican and Hispanic community before the scandal with Karla Sofía Gascón, and its limited release in the United States not seeing it have the same exposure and appeal Anora did to the main voter pool of the academy of Hollywood filmmakers. Anora also did not see polarizing scores between the audience and critics which may have been the true deciding factor in the race over the considerably stiff competition. It should also be taken into account that Emilia Pérez didn’t face off against the same films at the Oscars while on the festival circuit.

The box office for the weekend is as follows:

1. Mickey 17, Weekend: $19M, Total: $19M, Weeks: 1

2. Captain America: Brave New World, Weekend: $8.5M, Total: $177M, Weeks: 4

3. Last Breath, Weekend: $4.2M, Total: $15M, Weeks: 2

4. The Monkey, Weekend: $3.9M, Total: $31M, Weeks: 3

5. Paddington in Peru, Weekend: $3.9M, Total: $37M, Weeks: 4

6. Dog Man, Weekend: $3.5M, Total: $89M, Weeks: 6

7. Anora, Weekend: $1.9M, Total: $18M, Weeks: 21

8. Mufasa: The Lion King, Weekend: $1.7M, Total: $250M, Weeks: 12

9. Rule Breakers, Weekend: $1.6M, Total: $1.6M, Weeks: 1

10. Night of the Zoopocalypse, Weekend: $1.1M, Total: $1.1M, Weeks: 1