Pantera debuts in the US theaters today. Review scores for the sequel have now started to come in and have surpassed those of the original, with the movie getting strong ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Lionsgate's heist thriller sequel, starring Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr., opens at No. 1 despite slow January weekend and LA theater closures.

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.