Box office: Weak debuts for Mel Gibson, Steven Soderbergh, Angel Studios

Meanwhile, Oscar nominee A Complete Unknown had the best hold in the top ten, while fellow nominee The Brutalist did pretty well in its first week in wide release.

Mark Wahlberg in Flight Risk.

A few of this week’s highlights:

• Flight Risk had one of the smallest openings of any film directed by Mel Gibson, even before inflation is taken into account—but it also had the best opening in years of any film in which Mark Wahlberg got top billing.

• Presence—a haunted-house story told from the ghost’s point of view—had the smallest first weekend in wide release of any Steven Soderbergh film.

• Wolf Man, which already had one of the weakest openings of any “Universal Monsters” reboot last week, is now virtually tied with 2010’s The Wolfman for the worst second-weekend drop of any film in that franchise.

• A Complete Unknown, which was nominated for eight Oscars last week, had the best hold of any film in the top ten that was already in wide release, while The Brutalist, which was nominated for ten Oscars, surged as it more than tripled its theatre count.

• Brave the Dark, which stars Jared Harris as a high-school teacher who takes a troubled student under his wing, had the smallest opening of any Angel Studios movie to date, and was the first of their films to open outside of the top ten.

And now, a few more stats and facts re: this week’s top ten, title by title: