Den Of Thieves 2 Pantera Premiere Day Update: Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. starrer tops the Thursday box office in North America; Grosses USD 1.35 million

Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera dominated the North American Thursday box office, raking in USD 1.35 million on its premiere day.

Written by Seema Sinha , Entertainment Journalist

Updated on Jan 11, 2025 | 03:14 PM IST | 105K

Den of Theives 2 Pantera (Lionsgate Movies)

Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. are back on screens in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, four years after their first action-packed heist thriller enchanted viewers. The Lionsgate movie has made $1.3 million in Thursday USA previews and is projected to earn $11 million to $13 million in its opening weekend. If it achieves this target, DOT2 could go toe-to-toe with Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King for the box office crown for the week.

Disney’s much-anticipated Lion King prequel, which opened back in December, is on track for $12 million to $15 million in its fourth weekend. It kicked off the new year with $23.4 million last weekend but may slip to second place, under Den of Thieves 2, if it loses some staying power.

For our readers’ reference, the original Den of Thieves made $950,000 in Thursday previews when it came out in January 2018. It launched with $15.2 million in its opening weekend and ended its run with $80 million.

The sequel cost $40 million, and Lionsgate hopes to celebrate this weekend with its first No. 1 opening since November 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.

Written and directed once again by Christian Gudegast, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera follows Butler’s LAPD officer Big Nick as he tracks down Donnie (Jackson Jr.), a robber scheming a diamond heist. Additional cast members include Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel, and more.

Also opening this weekend is Paramount’s Better Man, a musical biopic that reimagines singer Robbie Williams as a CGI monkey. It is projected to earn $2 million in its opening weekend. Paramount, for the record, is also buoyed by the earnings of Sonic 3, which debuted over the Christmas weekend and has already crossed the $195 million mark at the North American box office, making it the most successful offering of the franchise. Sonic 3’s global revenue currently stands at $350 million.