‘Send Help’ outwits, outplays, outlasts its competitors

The Sam Raimi-directed film led a pack of new releases while ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ dropped out of the top five at record pace.

Dylan O’Brien in Send Help
Dylan O’Brien in Send Help. / 20th Century Studios

Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2026.

1. Send Help

Weekend gross: $20M
Total domestic gross: $20M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA

When you’re Sam Raimi, opening weekends really don’t matter. The director has already etched his name in box office history thanks to the Spider-Man trilogy, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and even Oz the Great and Powerful. (Say what you want about that movie, but studios these days would kill for a $79.1 million debut.)

All that said, Send Help’s $20 million opening weekend is actually pretty good for a midrange film from Disney’s 20th Century Studios.

Send Help was also a pretty solid debut for Rachel McAdams, falling between Mean Girls’ $24.4 million opening and The Time Traveler’s Wife’s $18.6 million opener. The film also ranks pretty high on Dylan O’Brien’s ranks, falling a rounding error away from Deepwater Horizon’s $20.2 million debut.

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2. Iron Lung

Weekend gross: $17.8M
Total domestic gross: $17.8M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA

Reads premise for Iron Lung. Oh, that sounds interesting. Sees that the director is someone named “Mark Fischbach.” Hmmm, let’s find out more about this director. Oh. It’s Markiplier. And this movie is from Markiplier Studios. Huh. Oh. Interesting.

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