Super Bowl Box Office: ‘Split’ Edges Out ‘Rings,’ No Room for ‘Space Between Us’

Over the Super Bowl weekend, Split remained the number one movie domestically for the third week in a row. Meanwhile, Rings followed in the footsteps of Underworld: Blood Wars and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and had the lowest opening for the franchise so far as the Asa Butterfield-Britt Robertson sci-fi romance The Space Between Us tanked in its debut.

M. Night Shyamalan’s Split took in $14.4 million (-43.8%) this weekend. The $40 million pic has now racked up $98.5 million domestically, which overtakes Unbreakable as Shyamalan’s fifth highest domestic grosser. The Village ($114.1m) is next to go, but The Last Airbender ($131.7m) looks a bit out of reach. Especially with three high-profile releases opening over Valentine’s Day weekend, Split will lose a bit of its unparalleled steam. Regardless, the original well-received horror thriller without a bankable star (sorry James McAvoy, I love you I even saw Filth) has now led the box office for three weeks and has grossed $141.9 million worldwide off its measly $9 million budget.

Even though it’s not right to champion films over others in the holy neutral ground of journalism (lol), let’s give a round of applause to the original horror movie in its third weekend beating out the critically-panned horror sequel in a 15-year-old franchise that was already a remake of a Japanese movie franchise. Paramount’s Rings opened with $13.0 million, which isn’t too terrible considering the $25 million budget and the international appeal of the franchise. Still, it’s lower than the $15.0 million The Ring posted in its 2002 debut, echoing the franchise-low debut numbers posted by the recent Underworld and Resident Evil movies. Nobody should be surprised that news dropped today that Paramount is putting a hold on their new Friday the 13th movie. When The Bye Bye Man opens within a few hundred-thousand dollars of your horror franchise films, it might be time to axe the franchise or reevaluate. Rings still might be semi-profitable though, with the movie already taking in $30.1 million worldwide.

A Dog’s Purpose brought in $10.5 million (-42.3%) on its second weekend. The $22 million dog movie that hates dogs has pulled in a solid $32.6 million domestically and has a worldwide total of $42.2 million. LEGO Batman will give it some heat, but A Dog’s Purpose is a different type of family movie so it probably won’t dip too much in the coming weeks. It doesn’t need much more anyway to be a good-looking hit for Universal.

Hidden Figures is now the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee after posting a $10.1 million (-27.2%) weekend. The drama has now pulled in an incredible $119.4 million domestically, topping La La Land’s current $118.2 million domestic total. It’s also now Taraji P. Henson’s third biggest domestic grosser behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($127.5m) topping Date Night ($98.7m) and Think Like a Man ($91.5m). The NASA mathematician flick has pulled in $127.5 million off a $25 million budget.

La La Land took in $7.3 million (-39.7%) this weekend. The musical has now grossed an insane $268.0 million worldwide off its $30 million budget.

In the face of Split and Rings, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter took a 65.4% dive in its second weekend. The sixth film in the video game movie franchise took in $4.7 million this weekend to bring its domestic total to $22.0 million. While that’s nowhere near the $40 million budget, foreign audiences have more than made up for it. The worldwide total is a profitable $117.6 million.

Sing is still chilling in the top ten, benefiting from a January without a single new wide animated release. The Illumination flick took in $4.0 million (-36.8%) this weekend to bring its domestic total to $262.8 million and its worldwide total to $487.7 million. The movie was made for $75 million.

xXx: The Return of Xander Cage made $3.8 million (-54.9%) on its third weekend. The sequel has grossed $40.2 million domestically, which is still below the $44.5 million opening of the first XXX from 2002. Foreign audiences have helped with the $85 million budget and have brought the worldwide total to $154.4 million. The movie opens in South Korea on Feb. 9, China on Feb. 10, and Japan and Poland on Feb. 24 to help bring the movie into the green.

The Space Between Us opened with $3.77 million. With a $30 million budget, that leaves quite a bit of work for foreign crowds to deal with when they come into play in the coming weeks. This one hopes to get some love from Valentine’s Day by being the only romance movie that’s not Fifty Shades, but this one is pretty DOA.

Lion added 830 theaters and made it to $3.76 million (+60.1%) this weekend, the best yet for the November release and its first in more than 575 theaters. The $12 million Best Picture nominee has grossed $24.4 million domestically for $38.6 million worldwide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJQtPjIk0GY

Gold took in $1.3 million (-60.4%) on its second weekend. The adult-skewing critically-hated Matthew McConaughey drama got lost in the sea of Oscar nominees and has only grossed $6.1 million so far. The budget is unknown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhYROWOayLw

Next week sees the release of The LEGO Batman Movie, Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick: Chapter Two.

Thanks to Box Office Mojo for the help.