Amazon MGM’s sci-fi thriller “Mercy” opened at No. 1 in North America with an estimated $11.2 million for the Jan. 23–25 weekend, a soft start that still ended “Avatar: Fire and Ash” at the top after a month-long run. The launch came as winter weather hit attendance across large parts of the U.S., with roughly 250 theaters closed in about 30 states, according to Comscore figures cited by TheWrap.
“Mercy” played in 3,468 locations and averaged about $3,200 per theater, according to industry tallies. Early indicators pointed to a tough road: AP reported a “B-” CinemaScore and a low Rotten Tomatoes score, signals that word of mouth may not help the film hold screens through February. The movie carries a reported $60 million production budget.
Holdovers filled out the top five in a weekend that theaters and studios had already pegged as a low-grossing stretch. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” slipped to second with $7 million, bringing its domestic total to about $378.5 million. Disney’s “Zootopia 2” added $5.7 million, pushing past $401 million domestically. Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid” earned $4.2 million, while Sony’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” fell sharply in its second frame, dropping to $3.6 million.
The weather factor complicates read-through. TheWrap described frigid conditions keeping many people home even in regions where cinemas stayed open, a pattern that tends to hit adult-skewing releases harder than youth-driven titles. AP also noted that the old “Oscar bump” has weakened in recent years, even as nominees like “Hamnet” and “Marty Supreme” posted modest weekend business amid expanded runs.
Internationally, early grosses put “Mercy” at about $22.4 million worldwide after its first weekend, according to The Numbers’ tracking, leaving the film’s next two weekends as the first real test of demand once storms clear and new titles arrive.
