Lionsgate is hoping to put a poor 2024 box office behind them starting with the release of “Den of Thieves: Pantera,” which is opening to a solid $15 million from 3,008 locations and the studio’s first No. 1 since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in November 2023.

Pantera made $1.35M yesterday from showtimes that began at 6PM, a figure that’s ahead of the $950K previews of the original 2018 movie by +42%, but under last year’s other guy meat and potatoes movie,

Lionsgate bucked the trend of a difficult 2024 at the box office as Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera delivered the studio its first number one opening weekend since 2023 on an estimated $15.5m. A solid if not spectacular debut did not appear to suffer unduly from the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, the number one market in the United States.