‘The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard’ Tops Slow Box Office

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is the number one movie at the box office in North America, although it didn’t exactly annihilate the competition.

The Lionsgate action comedy opened Wednesday, pulling in $17 million since its debut — in line with analyst expectations. Over the three day weekend, the film made $11.6 million in 3,331 locations, according to Comscore.

The sequel to 2017’s The Hitman’s Bodyguard brings back stars Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Salma Hayek. The original movie was a hit with audiences and opened four years ago with $21.4 million.

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Only 78 percent of the nation’s theaters are currently open, which may have kept some people at home. Or the film could have been hurt by awful reviews. Critics gave the sequel a weak 25 percent score on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, describing it as “repetitive and tired.”

Elsewhere at the box office, A Quiet Place Part II continued to scare up big ticket sales. The horror drama grossed another $9.4 million for a second place finish. Since it debuted four weeks ago, the film has made $125 million domestically.

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway was third with $6.1 million. The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It was fourth with $5.15 million. Disney’s Cruella followed right behind with $5.1 million.

Meanwhile, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights continued to struggle. The movie musical fell to sixth place after ringing up $4.3 million this weekend. That marked a 63 percent drop in ticket sales from its disappointing $11.5 million debut last weekend.

The box office should shift into overdrive next weekend when Universal’s Fast 9 pulls into theaters in the U.S. and Canada.