Lionsgate is hoping to put a poor 2024 box office behind them starting with the release of “Den of Thieves: Pantera,” which is opening to a solid $15 million from 3,008 locations and the studio’s first No. 1 since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in November 2023.
That matches the unadjusted $15.2 million of the first “Den of Thieves” released back in 2018. The sequel, which stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr., has received somewhat positive reception with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 60% critics and 80% audience and a B+ on CinemaScore. The film carries a $40 million budget, though Lionsgate’s strategy of recouping some or all of the investment on their films through foreign presales should lower the break-even point.