Saturday Update: As expected, Sony’s Bad Boys for Life will three-peat atop the box office this weekend after posting $5.185 million on Friday, down just 42 percent from last Friday, and bringing the domestic total to $135.6 million after 15 days. Sony is estimating $17.375 million for the weekend.

Also holding strong in second place is 1917 with another $2.81 million yesterday, a decline of just 30 percent from last Friday. With $112.4 million earned stateside to date, the Oscar-nominated WWI epic from Sam Mendes is targeting a weekend around $8.7 million or more.

In third on Friday, Gretel & Hansel opened to $2.3 million yesterday, comparably below the $3.62 million opening day of Winchester on Super Bowl weekend two years ago. We’re projecting a $5.7 million opening frame.

Dolittle claimed fourth place with $1.96 million yesterday, easing 29 percent from last Friday and reaching $49.5 million domestically. Look for a weekend around $7.9 million.

STX and Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen capped the top five with $1.85 million yesterday, a respectable 50 percent decline from opening day one week ago. With $16.3 million earned domestically in eight days, the well-received crime-comedy is pacing for a $5.8 million sophomore frame.

Meanwhile, The Rhythm Section posted $1.155 million on opening day for Paramount. At its current pace, the thriller may only net around $2.9 million for opening weekend. By comparison, Miss Bala opened to a $6.86 million frame over the same Super Bowl weekend one year ago.

Friday Update: Following our weekend forecast earlier in the week, today’s new releases are off to expectedly modest starts entering Super Bowl weekend in North America.

UAR’s Gretel & Hansel pulled a reported $475K from shows beginning at 7pm in 2,500 locations last night. That’s just a few ticks above The Turning last week ($425K) and below Underwater $(500K) earlier this month. Those fellow genre films posted overall opening weekends of $6.95 million and $7.01 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, Paramount’s The Rhythm Section posted an estimate of $235K last night, also from shows starting at 7pm in over 2,200 locations. That’s just over one-third of what Miss Bala ($650K) earned in its Thursday night debut before the Super Bowl last year, a pic which ultimately bowed to $6.86 million for its first weekend.

Both Thursday night figures remain unconfirmed by their respective studios.

As covered earlier, Bad Boys for Life will easily remain atop the box office in its third frame this weekend, while 1917 and Dolittle will cap off the top three ahead of the newcomers.

More updates throughout the weekend.

The post Weekend Box Office Estimates: <em>Bad Boys for Life</em> ($16M+) Threepeats on Super Bowl Weekend; <em>Gretel & Hansel</em> ($5M+) and <em>The Rhythm Section</em> ($2.5M+) Open Softly appeared first on Boxoffice.