AMC’s “Release Party of a Showgirl,” a launch party theatrical event for Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl,” has helped keep the box office out of a deep slump this weekend with $33 million grossed from 3,702 domestic theaters and $46 million worldwide.
Announced just two weeks ago and promoted almost entirely through Swift’s social media channels, “Showgirl” may not have the drawing power of a concert film like “The Eras Tour,” which earned $93 million on its opening weekend two years ago; but it is helping stem the tide after Lionsgate’s “Michael” and Warner Bros./New Line’s “Mortal Kombat II” moved from a release this month to May 2026 in hopes of becoming prominent early summer blockbusters.
It has allowed theaters to catch some profits from the immense hype around Swift’s new album, which has set records on multiple music streaming platforms. “The Life of a Showgirl” has sold 2.7 million physical and digital copies on its first day, making it the second highest of all time, according to Billboard.
On the flip side, A24’s “The Smashing Machine” isn’t packing much of a punch with an opening weekend of just $6 million from 3,345 theaters. Though many critics hailed the Benny Safdie film as a career best performance for Dwayne Johnson, it now drops below his 2010 action film “Faster” for the lowest wide opening of his career.
Compared to other A24 films, the wrestling biopic “The Iron Claw” earned a $6.7 million 4-day opening from 2,774 screens on Christmas weekend in 2023. It’s also little more than half of the $11.3 million opening that the distributor earned from the Celine Song drama “Materialists” this past June.
While “The Smashing Machine” earned Safdie a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and has been generally well received, that reception among audiences hasn’t been exceptional with a B- on CinemaScore and a 78% Rotten Tomatoes score, suggesting that the prospect of seeing Johnson in a potential Oscar-worthy role might not be as interesting to as many moviegoers as hoped.
In between “Showgirl” and “Smashing Machine” at No. 2 is Warner Bros.’ “One Battle After Another” with $11.1 million in its second weekend, bringing it to $42.8 million domestic and $101 million worldwide.
At this pace, the Paul Thomas Anderson film, which is already the director’s highest grossing film ever, should finish with a global total slightly higher than the $158 million of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
While not the smash theatrical hit of Warner’s “Sinners” despite the similar levels of critical acclaim, “One Battle After Another” should be able to ride that praise to enough post-theatrical revenue to turn a profit. Even if it doesn’t, Warner can chalk it up to being “one for the artform,” with any losses easily made up for by the profits from “A Minecraft Movie,” let alone the six other consecutive hits on the studio’s slate this year.
In fourth is Universal/DreamWorks’ “Gabby’s Dollhouse,” which after a solid $13.7 million opening has fallen a steep 62% to a second weekend of just $5.2 million, bringing its domestic total to just $21.6 million.
Warner Bros./New Line’s “The Conjuring: Last Rites” completes the top 5 with $4.1 million, giving it a total of $167 million domestic and $458 million worldwide. Farther down the charts, Disney/20th Century’s re-release of “Avatar: The Way of Water” earned $3 million this weekend to take No. 7 on the charts as the next chapter of the series “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” hits theaters in December.
On the specialty side, IFC/Shudder released the indie horror film “Good Boy,” which earned $2.2 million from 1,650 theaters. Directed by Ben Leonberg and starring his own dog, Indy, the film is second behind the $2.8 million launch of last year’s “Late Night With the Devil” among IFC’s all-time opening weekends.
Finally, Focus Features released the drama “Anemone” in 865 theaters, grossing only $700,000 for a per theater average of just $809. The film is the first for 3-time Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis since “Phantom Thread” in 2017 and is the directorial debut for his son, Ronan Day-Lewis, with whom he co-wrote the film. Despite that hype, critics were lukewarm on “Anemone,” giving it a 53% Rotten Tomatoes score.
