Weekend Wrap-Up: Split Outnumbers the Competition with $25.66 million
January 31, 2017
It was a surprisingly strong weekend at the box office, no thanks to the new releases. Split easily won with $25.66 million over the weekend, well ahead of A Dog’s Purpose, which earned second place with $18.22 million. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter got off to a fast start, but collapsed over the rest of the weekend. Finally, the less said about Gold the better. Overall, the box office was really strong with $141 million. Granted, this was 2.5% lower than last week, but it was 1.3% better than the same weekend last year. This growth is entirely due to Split’s hold plus the Oscar bounce a number of films got. Year-to-date, 2017 has earned $929 million, which is 4.7% lower than last year’s pace of $975 million. It is still too soon to make any real predictions for 2017’s long term success. That said, 2017 did cut into 2016’s lead and it is now down by $46 million or 4.7%.
Split remained in first place over the weekend with $25.66 million giving the film a ten-day total of $77.39 million. The film dipped just 36% during its second weekend, which would be stunning for a family film and is practically unheard of for a horror movie. At this pace, the film will top $100 million by the end of next weekend and there will be another installment in this franchise. It is still rare for a film released in January to hit the century mark, so this could be a really good omen for the year.
A Dog’s Purpose wasn’t as hurt by its reviews as much as I thought it would, letting it earn second place with $18.22 million during its opening weekend. The film’s growth over the weekend suggests it is winning over families and that should help it long-term. The film only cost $25 million to make, so this is a great start. If it can find a similarly sized audience internationally, then it will break even early in its home market run. If not, it should still break even, eventually.
Hidden Figures dipped just 11% to $14.00 million over the weekend for a total of $104.02 million after just over a month of release. It actually managed to get to $100 million late Saturday, a day earlier than anticipated. With stellar reviews and a handful of Oscar Nominations, it should remain in wide release until the Oscars are handed out.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter started out strong, but quickly fell apart earning fourth place with $13.60 million over the weekend. This is the worst start in the Resident Evil franchise, despite earning the best reviews in the franchise. Yes, its Tomatometer Score is just 39% positive, but that is still the best the Resident Evil films have earned. The film will need to earn more than $100 million internationally to have any chance of breaking even any time soon. Fortunately that doesn’t appear to be a problem. More on that on Wednesday.
La La Land grew by 45% to $12.23 million over the weekend for a total of $106.69 million in total. Granted, the film did tie the record for most Oscar Nominations, but the Oscar bounce has been anemic the past few years, so I wasn’t expecting this kind of growth. It will also still be in wide release by the time the Oscars are handed out, so it will continue to pull in big bucks at the box office.
On the other hand, Gold will disappear from theaters as soon as theater owners are contractually able to dump it. The film only managed tenth place with $3.47 million in 2,166 theaters over the weekend. Ouch. The reviews were just 39% positive, so the word of mouth won’t be strong. Furthermore, it opened below the Mendoza Line, so theater owners won’t keep it for long, even if it had good legs.
Looking in on the Sophomore class, we find xXx: Return of Xander Cage in sixth place with $8.60 million over the weekend for a total of $33.84 million after ten days of release. If this film had cost $50 million to make, then I would be bullish about its chances of breaking even during its initial push onto the home market. However, it cost $85 million to make. The Founder only slipped one spot to 12th, earning $2.61 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $7.43 million. However, while this was down just 23%, it is too little, too late to save the film overall. The Resurrection of Gavin Stone fell to 28th place with $465,000 over the weekend for a ten-day total of $2.04 million. If I were a studio, I wouldn’t make a faith-based film. The box office numbers are simply too erratic.
- Resident Evil: The Final Chapter Comparisons
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- A Dog’s Purpose Comparisons
- Gold Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, The Founder, Gold, La La Land, Split, Hidden Figures, A Dog’s Purpose, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, Resident Evil