Box Office: ‘Spiral’ Incinerates Angelina Jolie’s ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’

Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures’ Spiral: From the Book of Saw easily won an otherwise ho-hum weekend at the North American box office, grossing $8.7 million from 2,811 theaters.

The pandemic continues to take a toll on moviegoing. While theaters have been reopening in earnest, roughly 45 percent of cinemas remain dark in North America. That stat is expected to improve over Memorial Day weekend, when the marquee will boast two Hollywood studio events pics, Cruella and A Quiet Place Part II, for the first time since the pandemic began.

Marking a new chapter in the Saw franchise with new characters, Spiral stars Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols and Samuel L. Jackson, and follows police efforts to stop a Jigsaw copycat killer.

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The original creators of the series, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, serve as executive producers alongside Rock, who pitched the idea for the film to producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg.

Wrath of Man, from Miramax and United Artists Releasing, placed No. 2 in its second weekend with $3.7 million from 3,007 locations for a 10-day domestic total of $14.6 million and global cume of $56 million.

Overseas, Wrath of Man has grown its total to $41.4 million after debuting to $18.5 million in China for a global cume of $56 million.

From Warner Bros. and Bron, Those Who Wish Me Dead came in No. 3 domestically with just $2.8 million from 3,198 theaters. Directed by Taylor Sheridan, the neo-Western action thriller stars Jolie as a fire jumper who fights to protect a young boy from ruthless killers.

Those Who Wish Me Dead debuted simultaneously on HBO Max, similar to every other 2021 Warner Bros. title. The adult-skewing film is the sort of offering that may be better suited for streaming than the big screen in the post-pandemic era.

Holdovers Demon Slayer the Movie: The Mugen Train and Raya and the Last Dragon rounded out the top five with $1.8 million and $1.7 million, respectively.

No one knows for certain how Zack Snyder’s new zombie pic Army of the Dead performed, since Netflix doesn’t report grosses. Some analysts estimate the film, playing in well north of 400 theaters, earned $800,000 to $900,000.