Box Office: ‘Mercy’ Downloads $5 Million on Opening Day

Chris Pratt led the domestic box office on Friday with the only major newcomer of the weekend: Amazon MGM’s “Mercy.” The sci-fi thriller threatens to end the winning streak of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which has topped the North American charts for the past five weekends.

“Mercy” earned $5 million domestically on its opening day from 3,468 locations. The film is projected to gross $12.6 million by Sunday.

Pratt leads “Mercy” as Chris Raven, a detective from the not-so-distant future who is on trial for the murder of his wife, played by Annabelle Wallis. An AI judge, played by Rebecca Ferguson, gives him 90 minutes to prove his innocence or face immediate execution. Timur Bekmambetov, a familiar face in the screenlife subgenre, directs the film with a script from Marco van Belle.

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” added $1.7 million on its sixth Friday at the domestic box office. James Cameron’s sci-fi threequel should pull in an estiamted $7.1 million through the weekend for a North American total of $378 million.

Unless the tides shift, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” will relinquish its box office crown before the end of its sixth weekend in theaters. The first “Avatar” and its sequel, “The Way of Water,” both remained No. 1 through seven weeks and grossed well over $2 billion.

Lionsgate’s domestic thriller “The Housemaid” grossed $1.48 million on Friday for a third-place finish. Its domestic total should reach $115 million by the end of the weekend. The adaptation of Freida McFadden’s twisty novel became a sleeper hit through the holidays and beyond, powering well past its $35 million pricetag. Naturally, a sequel is in the works, with star Sydney Sweeney and director Paul Feig returning.

Rounding out the Friday top five were Disney’s box office juggernaut “Zootopia 2” and Sony’s zombie thriller, “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”

At No. 4 was “Zootopia 2,” which earned $1.4 million on its ninth Friday in North American theaters. The animated sequel should gross an estimated $5.9 million through the weekend, pushing its domestic total to a mighty $401 million.

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” came in last place with just $1.2 million domestic on its second Friday in theaters. Sony’s horror thriller opened soft last weekend with $13 million against projections of $20 million to $22 million through the Martin Luther King Jr. Day frame. “The Bone Temple,” which carries a $63 million price tag, looks to add $4.2 million by Sunday (a 68% drop), for a domestic total of $21 million.