M. Night Shyamalan’s Split outdid the debut of A Dog’s Purpose to remain in first place. Other debuts like the sixth Resident Evil movie and Gold disappointed as Hidden Figures and La La Land crossed into blockbuster territory.
Split brought in $25.6 million (-35.9%) on its second weekend. That’s a terrific holdover for the well-received James McAvoy horror thriller, which has now grossed $77.3 million domestically. Foreign audiences have brought the worldwide total of Split to $101.0 million off a $9 million budget. Even in the face of horror sequel Rings and teen sci-fi The Space Between Us coming out next week to steal said horror and teen crowds, the buzz from Split should keep this film going strong against those two – both of which aren’t expected to make much noise next weekend.
A Dog’s Purpose may have taken a hit from the animal abuse controversy, but it still took in a solid $18.2 million on its opening. The film was only made for $22 million, and should be able to recoup that thanks to a lack of family entertainment besides LEGO Batman for the next month or so.
Hidden Figures took in $14.0 million (-10.9%) on its fourth weekend in wide release. The PG-rated drama has crossed $104.0 million domestically off a $25 million budget. A few bucks from foreign crowds bring the total to $106.5 million worldwide. After three Oscar nominations – including Best Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer and Best Picture – and no competition besides its fellow Oscar nominees, the movie should be able to keep holding over well for the next few weeks.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter made it to $13.6 million in its debut. That may be the lowest opening yet for the six-film 15-year-old franchise domestically, but the meteoric rise of foreign audiences make that domestic number insignificant nowadays for a movie like this where action-heavy foreign audiences care way less than the critic-savvy domestic crowds. The $40 million film has already grossed $77.8 million worldwide.
La La Land added 1,271 theaters this weekend and took in its best not-holdiay weekend yet with $12.2 million (+45.2%). The musical tied the record for most Oscar nominations this week with 14 of them, which surely brought more attention to the already critically-acclaimed flick. The $30 million film has now grossed $106.6 million domestically and $118.8 million from foreign crowds for a total of $225.5 million. It should have no trouble keeping its flow with Hidden Figures over the few weeks leading into the Oscars.
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage made $8.6 million (-57.3%) in its second weekend. That’s a sharp plunge, but came expected with the buzzy Split taking up the spotlight and direct competition in Resident Evil 6. The domestic total is now $33.8 million for the sequel, which is still below the $44.5 million three-day opening weekend gross of the first XXX from 2002. Foreign audiences have been more kind to the $85 million film and brought its worldwide total to $122.8 million. Whether foreign crowds will be able to fully recoup that budget remains to be seen.
Gold debuted to $3.4 million this weekend. It just came below the $3.7 million debut of 1996’s Larger Than Life to be Matthew McConaughey’s lowest wide release opening yet. It’s also the lowest debut for Bryce Dallas Howard, beating out the $8.6 million opening of the Joseph Gordon-Levitt comedy 50/50. In the face of the Oscar nominees, this critically-maligned film never stood much of a chance at succeeding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhYROWOayLw
The Founder, another adult-skewing drama from The Weinstein Company without any awards love in the middle of the Oscar heat, pulled in $2.6 million (-23.4%) on its second weekend to bring its domestic total to a lousy $7.4 million. On the plus side, the $7 million well-received film was able to hold over well and has managed to pull in a decent $12.5 million worldwide so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH3b6bs8llA
Next week sees the release of Paramount’s Rings and STX’s The Space Between Us.
Box office data from Box Office Mojo.
It is strange what happened when they were filming that dog movie, great to see La La Land doing well again. I want another resident evil movie haha!