‘Dog Man’ Stays No. 1 With $13.7 Million at Super Bowl Box Office

Universal/DreamWorks’ “Dog Man” will easily hold on to the No. 1 spot on Super Bowl weekend, a good result for Universal as another one of its films, 87North’s “Love Hurts,” is facing an uphill battle to turn a profit against its $18 million budget, as is Sony/Spyglass’ “Heart Eyes.”

“Dog Man” will take No. 1 with $13.7 million, a stiff 62% drop from its $36 million opening. With a 10-day total of approximately $54 million, it will still be a theatrically profitable release, though it faces tough competition next weekend for family attention with “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Paddington in Peru” on the way.

“Heart Eyes” is in second with $8.5 million from 3,102 theaters against an $18 million budget. In a theatrical market loaded with horror films like “Nosferatu” and last week’s New Line release “Companion,” the Screen Gems slasher is hoping to leg out as a Valentine’s Day-themed offering for couples looking for a horror date night film.

Word-of-mouth has been generally positive, earning a B- on CinemaScore along with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 84% critics and 79% audience.

The outlook is much less rosy for the action film “Love Hurts,” which has opened to $6 million from 3,055 theaters. Critics have panned Ke Huy Quan’s leading role debut with a 16% Rotten Tomatoes score while audiences are mixed with a C+ on CinemaScore and a 68% RT audience score.

With an $18 million budget before a marketing campaign that included TV spots during NFL broadcasts to promote Quan’s co-star Marshawn Lynch, Universal isn’t facing a significant loss. But “Love Hurts” is looking like it will join “Wolf Man” as the second Universal release in the past month that will have to rely on premium on-demand and other post-theatrical revenue to break even.

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