The Boxoffice Podium
Forecasting the Top 3 Movies at the Domestic Box Office | February 6 – 8, 2026
Week 6 | February 6 – 8, 2026
1. Send Help
20th Century Studios | Week 2
Opening Weekend Range: $9M – $12M
Pros
- Director Sam Raimi stepped away from superhero tentpoles and went back to his horror roots with 20th Century Studios’ Send Help, an original survival horror movie with solid stars (Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien). The result was the director’s seventh #1 career opening as well as a huge win with critics and audiences (93% RT critical, 88% audience score, 4 out of 5 stars via PostTrak). Our prediction panel foresees a drop under -50% from the $19.1M opening.
Cons
- This is shaping up to be an epically bad weekend, one that might make the anemic $54.7M Frame 4 look like a bonanza. If anything, we expect the momentum of Send Help and its strong audience reaction to possibly help cushion the drop in Frame 2 for another #1 finish. With indie horror otherwise filling out the calendar, Raimi’s genre entry is the most traditionally slick Hollywood product out there in the forefront right now.
2. Iron Lung
Markiplier Studios | Week 2
Opening Weekend Range: $6M – $9M
Pros
- YouTube personality Markiplier brought his video game Iron Lung to the big screen in true disruptor fashion, earning $18.19M its opening frame despite being self-distributed. Too close for comfort to Send Help, it remarkably performed akin to an average tentpole video game movie à la Mortal Kombat or Tomb Raider. Even if this was driven by a cult of personality, the lack of major new competition this frame combined with a curiosity factor gives it even more breathing room to rake it in for Frame 2.
Cons
- While it may have performed like a studio video game movie, this home-grown IP is not likely to hold like one. Given the over -57% drop the film took from Friday to Sunday, we expect Iron Lung to play a bit more fan-centric and suffer a steeper week-over-week fall. All indications say this was a front-loaded affair, but at a less-than-$5M budget it’s already done what it needed to do to turn a profit even before it hits streaming platforms.
3. The Strangers – Chapter 3
Lionsgate | NEW
Opening Weekend Range: $5M – $8M
Pros
- While Renny Harlin’s initial Strangers prequel acquitted itself well with an $11.8M opening and $35.2M domestic total, the September 2025 release of Chapter 2 failed to launch with a $5.8M debut and $15.15M domestic. With those -50%+ diminishing returns, Lionsgate’s The Strangers – Chapter 3 will have a heavy lift ahead of it, but the fact that it is the major new release of the weekend should give it some tail wind along with the curiosity factor of any “final” installment.
Cons
- There’s no getting around the fact that Lionsgate’s third Strangers prequel is stumbling to the finish line. While neither of the first two parts did well critically, the fact that the second entry was essentially a typical third act final girl chase stretched to feature length did not endear it to fans, taking things out of the series’ usual bottle format. With the last movie doing less than half the business of the first chapter, the law of diminishing returns might mean there is no bottom for this third movie to under-perform.
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