Flight Risk, directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg, took the top spot over the weekend at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The action thriller claimed the number one slot despite poor reviews from critics (24 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and mediocre audience surveys (a ‘C’ from CinemaScore).

The Lionsgate thriller starring Wahlberg as Daryl – a pilot flying Air Marshal Madolyn (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive Winston (Topher Grace) across Alaska – is the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s directorial follow-up to 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge.

The film, which also features Leah Remini, Monib Abhat and Paul Ben-Victor, took the top honors in box office revenue on a quiet weekend, as overall revenues were estimated to be around $70.2 million, ᴅᴇᴀᴅline reported.

January is a traditionally slow month at the box office, as 2024 revenues for this weekend were estimated to be around $54.5 million according to Box Office Mojo, making for the year’s second-worst frame. 

Sunday’s box office was expected to be hampered by a pair of NFL championship games, with the NFC’s Eagles-Commanders and AFC’s Chiefs-Bills battling for respective Super Bowl berths.

Flight Risk, starring Mark Wahlberg, took the top spot over the weekend at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday 

The Lionsgate thriller is the Oscar-winning filmmaker Mel Gibson’s directorial follow-up to 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge. Pictured in LA in September 

Flight Risk marks the second number one debut of the year for Lionsgate, following Den of Thieves 2: Pantera earlier this month.

The box office success comes after President Donald Trump recently named Gibson a ‘special ambᴀssador’ to Hollywood, along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone.

Read More Mark Wahlberg reveals the secret to his shock bald transformation in new movie Flight Risk

Going into the weekend, Hollywood’s attention was more focused on the Sundance Film Festival and on Thursday’s Oscar nominations, which were twice postponed by the wildfires in the Los Angeles region.

The weekend was also a small test as to whether the once more common Oscar ‘bump’ that can sometimes follow nominations still exists.

Most contenders have by now completed the bulk of their theatrical runs and are more likely to see an uptick on VOD or streaming.

But the weekend´s most daring gambit was A24 pushing Brady Corbet´s The Brutalist – a three-and-a-half-hour epic nominated for 10 Academy Awards – into wide release.

Though some executives initially greeted The Brutalist, which is running with an intermission, as ‘un-distributable,’ Corbet has said, A24 acquired the film out of the Venice Film Festival and it’s managed solid business, collecting $6 million in limited release.

In wide release, it earned $2.9 million – a far from blockbuster sum but the best weekend yet for The Brutalist. The audience was downright miniscule for another best-picture nominee: RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys. 

The Lionsgate thriller stars Wahlberg as Daryl, a pilot flying Air Marshal Madolyn (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive Winston (Topher Grace) across Alaska 

Topher Grace plays the role of Winston, a fugitive being transported, in the thriller 

Innovatively sH๏τ almost entirely in first-person POV, the Amazon MGM Studios release gathered just $340,171 in 540 locations after expanding by 300 theaters.

Coming off one of the lowest Martin Luther King Jr. weekends in years, no new releases made a major impact.

Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, a well-reviewed horror film sH๏τ from the perspective of a ghost inside a suburban home, debuted with $3.4 million in 1,750 locations. The film, released by Neon and acquired out of last year’s Sundance, was made for just $2 million.

The top spots otherwise went to holdovers. The Walt Disney Co.’s Mufasa: The Lion King, in its sixth weekend of release, scored $8.7 million to hold second place. After starting slow, the Barry Jenkins-directed film has amᴀssed $626.7 million globally.

One of Them Days, the Keke Palmer and SZA led comedy from Sony Pictures, held well in its second weekend, dropping just 32 percent with $8 million in ticket sales. In recent years, few comedies have found success on the big screen, but One of Them Days has proven an exception.