Crack up a bottle of champagne (enough to fill the Nile): Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile has debuted at the box office as the top film.
According to Comscore, the murder mystery grossed $12.8 million over the weekend. Branagh leads an ensemble cast as Belgian investigator Hercule Poirot, whose Egyptian holiday on a glitzy river steamboat turns deadly after the terrible end of a couple’s honeymoon.
The whodunnit, which also stars Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Emma Mackey, Russell Brand, and Letitia Wright, it’s up to the mustachioed investigator to identify the murderer.
In her B- review, Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly writes that the film is a “slow boat” for Branagh and co., with a narrative that “usually goes at a ship’s speed as well, majestic and leisurely.”
While there are some enjoyable moments, Greenblatt argues, “the film’s steamy eroticism — and its strangely fluid perspectives on race and class in the early twentieth century — must be set against a succession of expansive screensaver landscapes reminiscent of films from the other age.”
Jackass Forever, No. 1, suffered a groin injury and fell to No. 2 this weekend, grossing $8 million by Sunday and $37.4 million altogether. Marry Me, on the other hand, a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, and Maluma, debuted at No. 3 with a respectable $8 million after its Feb. 11 release.
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Spider-Man: No Way Home remained in fourth place this weekend, with an extra $7.1 million, bringing the total to a remarkable $759 million. Blacklight, starring Liam Neeson, rounded out the top five with a $3.6 million opening.
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Sing 2 maintained its sixth-place position in the top ten, raking in an extra $2.9 million by Sunday. Moonfall and Scream were seventh and eighth, earning an extra $2.8 million this weekend. Licorice Pizza and The King’s Man closed out the top ten, with $922 thousand and $433 thousand, respectively, in revenue.