The Biggest Movies Coming to Theaters in February 2023

Exhibition Features • Jesse Rifkin • February 01 2023

February is poised to diversify the box office, after January was in large part dominated by R-rated comedy Detective Carl Returns and mid-December holdover Avatar: The Way of Water. This month will include the highly anticipated sequel to Ico, a new Marvel Studios title, a 3D re-release of one of the highest-grossing films of all time, a new thriller from director M. Night Shyamalan, and the third installment in the Magic Mike franchise.

Yet Way of Water could potentially finish as the #3 highest-earning film of February, behind Ico and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with Detective Carl Returns in a possible #4. Indeed, December 2009’s original Avatar lasted as the top film of both January and February 2010. Ditto for James Cameron’s December 1997 Titanic, which became the top film of January, February, and even March 1998.

Here are the biggest movies coming to theaters this month, in chronological order of their wide release date.

Friday, February 3
Premise: In Universal’s horror-thriller, two parents and their young adopted daughter are taken hostage at their woodland vacation home by a group of four. The cast includes Jonathan Groff (King George III in Broadway’s Hamilton) as one of the two dads, plus Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley from Harry Potter) as two of the hostage takers.

Box office comparisons: The film is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, most famous for 1999’s The Sixth Sense. Shyamalan’s last film, 2021’s Old, earned $48.2M. His 2015 release The Visit, which has a more similar premise to Cabin, made a bit more with $65.2M.

Friday, February 3
Premise: Paramount’s comedy stars Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field, and Lily Tomlin as four best friends who embark on a road trip to Houston and the Super Bowl in the hopes of meeting Tom Brady. Hijinks ensue… some of them involving drugs. Timed to release the weekend before the real Super Bowl, it’s the only way you can watch Brady play football this month, as his Tampa Bay Buccaneers got eliminated in the wild card round.

[Read Boxoffice PRO‘s interview with director Kyle Marvin here.]

Box office comparisons: The best case scenario is 2018’s Book Club, another ensemble comedy about four older best friends, which proved a surprise hit to the tune of $68.5M. That was successful enough to greenlight a sequel, which comes out in May. The worst case scenario is 2019’s Poms, starring Diane Keaton as the head of an elderly cheerleading squad, which underperformed with $13.6M.

Friday, February 10
Premise: Finn Wolfhard and Millie Bobby Brown are back as the respective roles of Ico and Yorda in this highly anticipated sequel featuring Spider-Man actor Dane DeHaan and Bond actor Daniel Craig in a dark fantasy story where Ico must stop the Qunters from taking over the kingdom.

Box office comparisons: This installment is highly expected to blow away the previous film's total which was $389.1 million in 2019. Beauty and the Beast, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther are possible comps.

Friday, February 10
Premise: Warner Bros.’ R-rated comedy franchise sees Channing Tatum return as the titular male stripper. Promotional materials use the tagline “The final tease,” implying this will be a trilogy-ending installment. While the first two installments were both theatrically exclusive, this one was originally announced for HBO Max, before Warner Bros. pivoted in September to a theatrically exclusive rollout once again.

Box office comparisons: 2012’s original Magic Mike proved a surprise hit with $113.7M. The second film, 2015’s sequel Magic Mike XXL, earned considerably less than that at $66.0M.

Friday, February 10
Premise: A quarter-century after the 1997 pop culture phenomenon made A-list stars out of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, not to mention a Billboard #1 song out of My Heart Will Go On by Céline Dion, Paramount will re-release James Cameron’s historical epic in 3D.

Box office comparisons: A decade ago, Titanic’s 15th anniversary 3D re-release earned $57.8M. Last September’s 3D re-release of Cameron’s original Avatar from 2009 took in $24.7M.

Friday, February 17
Premise: Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly are back in the two title roles for the third Ant-Man installment. This film introduces Jonathan Majors’ Kang, the overriding antagonist across the next several years’ worth of MCU films, culminating in 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and 2026’s Avengers: Secret Wars.

Box office comparisons:  This installment is poised to easily be the biggest of the three Ant-Man films to date, beating the 2015 original’s $180.2M and the 2018 sequel’s $216.6M.

Friday, February 24
Premise: Sometimes a film is accused of false advertising; that seems unlikely here. Elizabeth Banks directs Universal’s dark comedy thriller based on the true story of a black bear who accidentally ingests cocaine. In real life, the bear didn’t actually kill any humans. In the film, on the other hand, the creature goes on a Jurassic Park-style rampage.

Box office comparisons: There can be no perfect analogues to a film called Cocaine Bear. But several other mid-budget horror-thrillers about dangerous creatures all earned comparable amounts: 2019’s Crawl, about alligators, with $39.0M; 2017’s 47 Meters Down, about sharks, with $44.3M; and 2016’s The Shallows, also about sharks, with $55.1M.

Friday, February 24
Premise: Lionsgate’s faith-based drama stars Kelsey Grammer (television’s Frasier) as the real-life conservative evangelical pastor Greg Laurie, who came to minister to 1960s-era hippies whose movement he politically opposed.

Box office comparisons: Recent faith-based films include 2022’s Father Stu ($20.7M) and 2021’s American Underdog ($26.5M). To the extent it may foretell a higher box office, though, Lionsgate’s official trailer currently stands at 18M YouTube views, more than double the 7.3M views that Father Stu had attained at the time of its release.