Send Help Survives At Number One With Solid Numbers On A Slow Box Office Weekend
The relationship between the box office and the Super Bowl is not a friendly one. While it’s true that the latter takes place on what is generally the slowest day of any given weekend, it’s such a standout event that it successfully overshadows all entertainment – and that includes going out to the local theater to catch a movie. Hollywood has adjusted to this by not really bothering to compete, as this is not generally a Friday-to-Sunday stretch that sees the release of major new blockbusters… and that has allowed Sam Raimi’s Send Help to once again sit at the top of the domestic Top 10.
It’s not exactly a case of domination, as no film did particularly well on the big screen in the last three days, but the movie did still manage to keep its box office crown with a rather impressive and soft weekend-to-weekend drop. You can scope out the full chart below and join me after for analysis.
|
TITLE |
WEEKEND GROSS |
DOMESTIC GROSS |
LW |
THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Send Help |
$10,000,000 |
$35,839,748 |
1 |
3,475 |
|
2. Solo Mio* |
$7,200,000 |
$7,200,000 |
N/A |
3,052 |
|
3. Iron Lung |
$6,000,000 |
$30,815,104 |
2 |
2,916 |
|
4. Stray Kids: The DominATE Experience* |
$5,564,237 |
$5,564,237 |
N/A |
1,724 |
|
5. Dracula* |
$4,505,350 |
$4,505,350 |
N/A |
2,050 |
|
6. Zootopia 2 |
$4,000,000 |
$414,506,721 |
4 |
2,715 |
|
7. Avatar: Fire And Ash |
$3,500,000 |
$391,533,850 |
5 |
2,365 |
|
8. The Strangers: Chapter 3* |
$3,500,000 |
$3,500,000 |
N/A |
2,565 |
|
9. Shelter |
$2,425,000 |
$9,987,000 |
6 |
2,726 |
|
10. Melania |
$2,378,874 |
$13,353,819 |
3 |
2,003 |
Send Help Stays On Top Of The Box Office With A Soft Drop After Its Debut
If you’ve been following box office developments in the last year, you know that the horror genre has heat, and things tend to go particularly well ticket sales-wise when positive word of mouth gets going. Send Help is turning into the latest perfect example of this. While the new 2026 movie isn’t exactly putting up numbers comparable to Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners or Zach Cregger’s Weapons, it has now successfully followed up a impressive debut with a solid second weekend.
According to The Numbers, the Sam Raimi film turned what was expected to be a much closer battle for #1 into an easy win, and the numbers are strong. The film didn’t exactly become an instant blockbuster when it arrived on the big screen last week, as it made $19.1 million in its first three days, but the movie got a very positive response from critics and got audiences buzzing, and the end result of that is a 48 percent weekend-to-weekend drop.
The new horror movie added $10 million to its coffers domestically over the last three days per early reporting, and that brings its total gross in the market up to $35.8 million. For a feature with a modest reported budget of $40 million (via Variety), that’s a pretty good place to be at this point – especially when you compare the results to the buzzy horror title that was released this time last year: Drew Hancock’s Companion. Both features earned great reviews prior to arriving on the big screen, but Send Help has had a totally different trajectory, as the 2025 release made only half of what the new film made in its opening weekend and then saw its ticket sales tumble 68 percent despite strong word of mouth.
To go along with its success in the United States and Canada, the Rachel McAdams/Dylan O’Brien two-hander has also made $17.9 million in foreign markets, which brings its worldwide box office total to date up to $53.7 million. I can’t fully call it a ringing success because there is still a road to travel before all of the numbers look really great on paper, but the title is in a good place for now.
As noted last week, it can be said to be a nice step up from the last time that Sam Raimi delivered an original horror movie: the underrated 2009 feature Drag Me To Hell. The Alison Lohman-led feature was sitting at $28.2 million by the tenth day of its domestic release – and that was in mid-summer.
Maintaining momentum might be a bit difficult in the immediate future thanks to the collection of titles arriving in wide release for the upcoming Valentine’s Day weekend (more on that later), and that will be something to keep an eye on come this time next week.
Iron Lung Falls To Third Place After A Weak Second Weekend, But It’s Already Set To Have A Great Legacy
In last week’s box office column, I admitted to having no idea what the future would hold for Iron Lung – the new feature from filmmaker Mark Fischback, best known to his YouTube followers as Markiplier. Despite not having major studio backing and non-traditional marketing, movie came out of nowhere to compete with Send Help for the top spot at the box office, and in the wake of that success, I acknowledged that I had no idea if it was heat that the title could maintain.
It turns out that it couldn’t.
While Iron Lung turned a lot of heads with its arrival in wide release, it would appear that didn’t translate to a curiosity powerful enough to drive a strong second weekend. While Send Help saw its ticket sales drop by less than half after its debut, the indie horror movie saw its domestic earnings sink 67 percent, and it only made $6 million in the last three days – which was a descent matched by Brett Ratner’s controversial documentary Melania, which went from third place to tenth place and made only $2.4 million in the last three days.
But here’s the significant difference between those two features: Amazon paid a ridiculous $40 million to license Melania, which is about to drop out of the Top 10 after having made only $13.4 million; Iron Lung cost only $3 million to produce, per Deadline, and it’s still hanging around in the Top 5 after shocking the world with its $30.8 million gross so far. One is a massive bomb, while the other will ultimately be remembered as one of the best big screen success stories of 2026.
The Strangers: Chapter 3 Closes Out The Horror Trilogy With A Whimper
Looping back to the discussion of the Super Bowl, studios knew not to drop any highly anticipated titles in theaters this past Friday in acknowledgement that nothing could complete with the NFL championship game. As a result, the middle of this weekend’s Top 10 is filled with smaller titles that managed to bring in seven-figures including Chuck Kinnane and Dan Kinnane’s romantic drama Solo Mio starring Kevin James, Paul Dugdale and Farah Khalid’s concert movie Stray Kids: The DominATE Experience, and Luc Besson’s Dracula. These films didn’t manage to put up what could be called headline-worthy ticket sales – but I will shine a quick spotlight on Renny Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 3, which closes out the horror trilogy starring Madelaine Petsch with the weakest debut of the series.
None of the new Strangers movies performed well, but they’ve also had diminishing returns. The first made just $11.8 million when it debuted in May 2024, The Strangers: Chapter 2 brought in just $5.8 million in its first three days last fall, and now The Strangers: Chapter 3 has brough the canon to an end with a whimper, having made just $3.5 million since Friday. These results will probably make it hard to justify a theatrical release for the near-four hour supercut that Petsch recently told me about in an interview.
As alluded to earlier, next week should see a good bump in box office activity, as multiple new titles are arriving on the big screen so that couples can celebrate Valentine’s Day in the comfort of a movie theater: Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, Bart Layton’s Crime 101, and Tyree Dillihay and Adam Rosette’s GOAT. Which film will end up on top? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to scope out the results.
