One Love’ Has Best Valentine’s Day Box Office in Domestic History

Defying mediocre critical reception, Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love broke box office records on its first day of release. The music biopic opened on Wednesday, and generated $14 million domestically, delivering the best-ever mid-week Valentine’s Day haul, according to Deadline. The movie also grossed around $5 million from 10 overseas markets, for an early global haul of $19 million. One Love, based on the life of the reggae icon, easily outpaced its biggest competition, Sony’s Madame Web.

Produced on a reported budget of $70 million and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, who recently experienced success with his sports drama King Richard, One Love stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley. The movie received mixed response from critics, and currently sits at a 44% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Collider’s Nate Richardpraised Ben-Adir’s central performance, but described the film as “flat and uninspiring.” Audience response, however, has been close to ecstatic. One Love earned an A CinemaScore from opening day audiences, and a 94% audience score on RT. It remains to be seen how the movie will perform in its extended opening — from Valentine’s Day on Wednesday to President’s Day on Monday — but it’s clear that it will handily out-perform the projected six-day estimates of around $32 million. Madame Web, on the other hand, was projected to gross around $26 million in the same frame, but managed to generate only $6 million on Wednesday.

Continuing a sorry trend for Sony’s Marvel universe, Madame Web also earned toxic reviews after braving online mockery for weeks. Starring Dakota Johnson, Madame Web sits at a “rotten” 14% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with audience reception being just as terrible. It earned a C+ CinemaScore from opening day crowds, which happens to be the same as its much-derided fellow franchise member Morbius. Starring Jared Leto, Morbius opened to $39 million in its traditional three-day weekend a couple of years go, and finished its run with a little over $70 million domestically. Sony’s other Spider-Man spin-offs — Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage — both defied middling reviews to emerge as box office hits.

Sydney Sweeney Has Two Films in the Top Five

Incidentally, another film starring Madame Web’s Sydney Sweeney took the third spot. Now approaching its ninth weekend, Sony’s romantic comedy Anyone But You grossed $1.16 million on Valentine’s Day, which marks an astounding 151% jump from yesterday, and takes its running total to $82 million. The movie is now playing with additional footage now, and will soon land on digital after a truly phenomenal run that has generated close to $180 million globally and made Sweeney and her co-star Glen Powell household names.

Taking the number four and five spots were Argylle and Lisa Frankenstein. Both under-performers but by different yardsticks, the films earned $1.14 million and $887,000, respectively. The big-budget Argylle’s running domestic total now stands at $31 million after 13 days of release, while Lisa Frankenstein has generated $5.3 million in six days. Stay tuned to Collider for more box office coverage over the weekend.