Chris Pratt's sci-fi thriller "Mercy" made $11.2 million in its North American opening, ending the five-week reign of James Cameron's "Avatar: Fire and Ash."
Although not a big hit for "Mercy," the result is still strong, especially considering a big winter storm that’s covering much of the U.S. with snow.
Warnings of cold weather, high winds and blizzards have been issued in 37 states, from Texas to Maine, leading to many theaters closing. This weekend is the worst of the year with only about $60 million earned by all films, a drop of about 9% compared to the same time last year.
"Mercy" was expected to make $12 million, but as the storm spread, those numbers were slightly lowered.
The movie didn't do well internationally, making $11.6 million in 80 markets, which brings the total worldwide to $22.8 million.
Domestic moviegoers who braved the cold, or those in areas that were not hit by the snow or power outages, weren’t impressed with "Mercy," which got a "B-" on CinemaScore.
Critics weren’t impressed either, as seen by the 20% Rotten Tomatoes score. That might be a problem for the movie's continued success, since it had a $60 million production budget, not including global marketing. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, "Mercy" takes place in the near future as a detective (Pratt) stands trial for allegedly killing his wife. An advanced AI judge (Rebecca Ferguson) decides his fate.
David A. Gross, who runs the movie research firm Franchise Entertainment Research, said, "The weekend start is also good considering the soft reception."
"Mercy" is the first big movie of the year for Amazon MGM, which didn’t release many films in 2025.
The studio has big plans for the next 11 months, including "Project Hail Mary" starring Ryan Gosling, "Masters of the Universe," and "Verity," based on a Colleen Hoover book. This is good news for theaters, which have been complaining about the low number of new films since the pandemic and two Hollywood strikes. The drop in new releases led to lower domestic box office earnings in 2025, missing the $9 billion analysts expected.
"Avatar 3," which had been number one for all of January, dropped to second place, making $7 million.
After six weekends, "Fire and Ash" has earned $378 million in North America and $1.378 billion worldwide. Even though this is a huge number, "Avatar 3" isn't close to the box office success of its predecessors, 2009's "Avatar" and 2022's "Avatar: The Way of Water." Those movies stayed on top for seven weekends and ended up with $2.9 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively.
Disney's animated hit "Zootopia 2" stayed in third place, making $5.7 million in its ninth weekend.
The sequel has been a strong performer since Thanksgiving, with $401 million in North America and $1.744 billion worldwide. It remains the highest-grossing animated film of all time, ahead of "Inside Out 2" ($1.69 billion).
Another new release, "Return to Silent Hill," didn't make the top five, starting at No. 7 with $3.2 million from 1,850 theaters.
That’s way behind the first two films in the series, 2006’s "Silent Hill" ($20 million) and 2012’s sequel "Silent Hill: Revelation" ($8 million). Sony released the first film, which made $100 million worldwide, while Open Road backed the second, earning only $55 million. Iconic Events, which has distributed thrillers like the "Terrifier" series and "Steamboat," is behind the third film, which currently holds a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cineverse chairman and CEO Chris McGurk said, "The film has a total investment of only $3.5 million.
Love it or hate it, the video game fans want to see the film and talk about it, and that will continue to make it a great title for us in home entertainment."
He also mentioned, "Weather clearly was a big factor this weekend and impacted the box office significantly for everyone.
Hopefully, the industry will get some of this missed demand back during this week and next weekend if the weather improves."
Meanwhile, some Oscar hopefuls got a boost after nominations were announced on Thursday.
A24's "Marty Supreme," which got 9 nominations, added $3.5 million from 2,021 theaters over the weekend. That's a 32% drop from the previous weekend, the smallest decline in the top five. The film, starring Timothee Chalamet and directed by Josh Safdie, has earned $86.2 million in North America and over $105 million globally.
At number eight, Chloe Zhao's "Hamnet" opened with $2 million from 1,996 theaters in its first weekend of a wide release.
The Shakespearean drama, which earned 13 Academy Award nominations, has made $17.6 million domestically and $42 million globally after several weekends in limited release.
Comscore’s head of marketplace trends, Paul Dergarabedian, said, "Historically, films in the sweet spot of their runs in theaters have the most potential to get a coveted Oscar bounce at the box office."
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