‘Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera’ Begins Weekend Heist With $1.35M – Box Office

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Gerard Butler as 'Big Nick' O'Brien and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Donnie Wilson in Den of Thieves 2: Panthera. Rico Torres/Lionsgate

Lionsgate‘s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera made $1.35M yesterday from showtimes that began at 6PM, a figure that’s ahead of the $950K previews of the original 2018 movie by +42%, but under last year’s other guy meat and potatoes movie, The Beekeeper which did $2.4M in previews on its way to a $16.5M 3-day.

Den of Thieves 2 is expected to open between $11M-$13M at 3,008 in what is a soft early January frame. Part of that has to do with the offerings here, however, business is certain to be slow in the No. 1 market of the country, LA, due to the wildfires. Of 14 cinemas that were closed, two reopened: The AMC Americana in Glendale and the AMC Topanga 12 in Canoga Park. Prime LA venues AMC Century City, AMC Burbank and AMC Grove remain open. Den of Thieves 2 could get beat by Mufasa or Sonic the Hedgehog 3 which are looking to do about the same.

The previous movie was released by STX when it was in its full glory. The sequel here with Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. returning as well as director Christian Gudegast, isn’t part of STX’s output deal with Lionsgate. Foreign sales for the sequel were announced at Cannes 2019 by Sierra/Affinity. Why a sequel? The first movie overperformed its single digit opening in January 2018 to $15.2M and wound up with $44.9M domestic and $80.5M worldwide.

Part two sees Big Nick (Butler) back on the hunt in Europe and closing in on Donnie (Jackson), who is embroiled in the treacherous and unpredictable world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world’s largest diamond exchange. The movie was produced by Tucker Tooley, p.g.a., Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, and Mark Canton.

Deadline’s Pete Hammond enjoyed the sequel, which is 70% fresh with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Other offerings this weekend include the 1,200 theater expansion of Paramount’s biopic about pop star Robbie Williams, Better Man, which isn’t expected to do much in the single digits after an exclusive run that only put up an –eek–$3K to $4k theater average in its first two weekends.