Flight Riskhas passed a major box office milestone. The claustrophobic new thriller movie, which is set almost entirely on a small aircraft and was directed by Mel Gibson, stars Mark Wahlberg as a mob hitman posing as a pilot who has been hired to transport Deputy U.S. Marshal Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) and informant Winston (Topher Grace), who is his target. TheFlight Riskreleasekicked off on January 24 with an $11.6 million 3-day opening weekend gross that saw the movie debut at No. 1 at the domestic box office.
PerDeadline, as of Saturday morning,Flight Riskis projected to take in a total of $5.5 million at the domestic box office during its sophomore weekend, a total that sees it fall to No. 5 on the chart. This gives it a somewhat substantial week-on-week drop of 53%. However, its cumulative domestic total is set to reach $20.8 million, allowing it to cross the $20 million milestone and drawing nearer to its $25 million budget.
What This Means For Flight Risk
It Still Has A Way To Go
Flight Riskhas so far becomeone of the biggest hits of early 2025. TheMel Gibson movieis only the third new release of the year to cross the $20 million milestone at the domestic box office, soaring past Blumhouse’sWolf Manto land just behind the Keke Palmer comedyOne of Them Daysand the heist movie sequelDen of Thieves 2: Pantera. However, it remains to be seen if the movie will actually be able to make its money back.
One of Them Daysdebuted at No. 2 the weekend beforeFlight Riskpremiered and it is now No. 4 on the chart, aboveFlight Riskat No. 5.
Movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their budgets in order to break even in theaters, which means thatit likely needs to earn something around $62.5 millionby the end of its run. Given its current trajectory and its drop of more than 50% in week 2, it may struggle to hit that number. This will likely not be helped by the fact that negativeFlight Riskreviewshave earned the movie a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score of 26%.
How Flight Risk Compares To Other Mark Wahlberg Movies
His Thrillers Tend To Have Solid Drops
It can be difficult to putFlight Risk’s week 2 drop in perspective, considering the fact thatMark Wahlberg moviescome in different shapes and sizes, including major blockbusters likeTransformers: The Last Knightthat behave differently than smaller budget thrillers. Additionally, many of his recent thrillers including 2024’sThe Unionand 2021’sInfiniteare titles that debuted on streaming and do not have box office data that can be compared to his new movie. However,he has still starred in his fair share of theatrical thrillers. Below, see a breakdown of the performance of his most recent comparable offerings:
$11.6 million
53%
$13.7 million
53.6%
$11.6 million (wide expansion)
50.5%
$20.2 million
43%
$27 million
58.4%
$8.3 million
51.4%
$24.3 million
50.6%
Ultimately,Flight Risk’s 53% drop in its sophomore weekend puts it in good companyamong Mark Wahlberg’s recent theatrical thrillers. While it was only exceeded by the espionage thrillerMile 22and the action-comedy2 Guns, it otherwise compares favorably both with movies that opened at the same level (including the Boston Marathon bombing moviePatriots Day, which had the exact same opening weekend during its wide expansion in January 2017) and with movies that were bigger hits (like the crime thrillerContraband, which eventually earned $96.3 million worldwide against its comparable $25 million budget).
Our Take On The Flight Risk Milestone
Its Theatrical Run Isn’t The Be All, End All
AlthoughFlight Riskmay struggle to break even in theaters, it is far from a flop. Given the head start and notoriety it earned with its No. 1 debut,the movie will likely perform quite well on video on demandonce it is out of theaters. If its streaming numbers are bolstered by its considerably superior Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 64%, it could have a strong at-home run that redeems its somewhat lukewarm domestic box office performance.
Although Mark Wahlberg’s villainous performance is one of the key selling points of the movie, theFlight Riskcastis star-studded, and readers can findScreenRant’s breakdown of the stars and their charactershere.
In addition to the movie seeing a typically heroic actor taking on a villain performance, it alsodepicts him as a character who is balding, as opposed to having his usual full head of hair. Read aboutif Mark Wahlberg shaved his head forFlight Riskhere.
For those who were part of the movie’s initial success and have already seen it,ScreenRanthas aFlight Riskending explainerthatbreaks down every last moment of the thriller’s shockingdenouement.
To follow up the ending explainer, dive deeper into why theFlight Riskendingpresents viewers withan extreme rarity among Mark Wahlberg movies.
