While his films faltered quality-wise in the 2004-2013 era of his career, Shyamalan has actually got a strong track record at the box office with only one of his movies since 1998 (The Lady In The Water) debuting beneath $25 million. Thus, it was always expected for split to make some cash but never at these levels that make it the fourth biggest opening weekend ever for the filmmaker. As I said last weekend when The Bye Bye Man overperformed as well (though not anywhere near these levels), we haven't had a good horror film in a long while so there is some major pent-up demand for some more frightening fare out there (Paramount's Rings reboot is obviously gonna hope to ride this wave of demand in two weeks too). Plus, Split had a good marketing campaign that conveyed the unique premise in a concise fashion that helped it stand out from any recent horror fare. All in all, there's a good chance Split manages to become the first 2017 movie to cross $100 million domestically, an outstanding box office achievement. Finally, it's worth mentioning that this is now the ninth weekend in a row at the domestic box office where the number one movie in America starred a woman. That's really impressive to see!
2016 saw so many sequels to movies audiences hadn't really been clamoring for, from yet another Big Fat Greek Wedding to Alice going Through The Looking Glass to Bad Santa 2, all sequels to movies that nobody really wanted and all waiting too long to capitalize on the success of their predecessors.While 2017 seems to have less of those type of sequels on the slate, they still exist as xXx: Return Of Xander Cage can attest. The newest Xander Cage mission grossed only $20 million, a 59% decrease from the opening weekend of the first xXx movie and is also only 5% ahead of the opening weekend for the far cheaper Riddick. While this one's $85 million budget means it won't be a massive money-loser, it's still likely disappointing for Paramount Pictures, whose off to a really rough start for 2017. That being said, the film actually performed quite well internationally this weekend, so maybe there's hope for more Xander Cage adventures yet.
Hidden Figures continues to be quite the word-of-mouth driven success, grossing another $16.2 million (a tiny 22% dip from last weekend) that brings its domestic cume to $84.2 million. Incredible stuff and it's still got a long way to go in its box office run that could top out at as high of a gross as $135 million. Sing took in another $9 million (a 36% drop) that brings its strong domestic gross to $249.3 million. La La Land, meanwhile, had its first ever weekend-to-weekend decline, going down 42% to gross another $8.3 million. La La Land has now grossed $89.6 million and will crack $100 million next weekend. Rogue One, meanwhile, took in another $7 million, a 48% drop from last weekend that brings its domestic total to $512.2 million. Also worth noting is that this sci-fi adventure cracked a billion dollars worldwide this weekend, becoming only the fourth movie from 2016 to gross over a billion dollars worldwide (all four of these films hail from Disney).
Monster Trucks dipped 36% this weekend, about on par with the second-weekend declines of fellow family movies that opened over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend The Nut Job and Paddington. It grossed about $7 million this weekend for an abysmal $22.6 million 10-day total. This one's probably gonna top out domestically in between $35 and $40 million at best. Patriot's Day couldn't make up ground after an underwhelming bow last weekend, grossing only $6 million (a 48% drop from last weekend) that brings it to only $23.6 million domestically, a poor showing given its $45 million budget.
Finally debuting this weekend was The Founder, the first movie from The Weinstein Company to open in over 1,000 theaters since Jane Got A Gun fifty-one weeks ago. This Michael Keaton biopic grossed only $3.7 million, an OK but not great bow that gave it the fifth best per-theater average for any wide release out there (it grossed $3,370) but just didn't have the buzz or marketing to make it stand out in the marketplace. If The Weinstein Company can hold onto its theater over the next two weeks, there's a slim but existing chance it could crack $10 million domestically.
Sleepless rounded out the top ten with a $3.7 million second-weekend cume, which is a 55% drop from last weekend. This Jamie Foxx crime drama has grossed $15.1 million in ten days, slightly above expectations but still a not so great box office cume. The Bye Bye Man felt the brunt of Split entering the marketplace as it plummeted 73% to gross another $3.5 million, bringing it to a 10-day domestic total of $20.1 million. This one will likely end its domestic run just under or above $25 million. Lion continued to be a persistent performer, grossing $1.8 million (only a 21% dip from last weekend), meaning it's grossed $16.3 million before Oscar nominations have been announced. And then there was Live By Night, which plummeted 64% from its disastrous opening weekend to gross only $1.8 million, meaning it's now grossed only $9.4 million domestically.
Going into wide release this weekend was 20th Century Women, which grossed an OK $1.4 million at 650 theaters for a per-theater average of $2,155. 20th Century Women has grossed $2.3 million domestically so far and is counting on some Oscar nods for Annette Bening and/or Greta Gerwig to boost its box office. Grossing only $1.3 million was the new Christian movie comedy The Resurrection Of Gavin Stone, which gives it the 39th biggest opening weekend ever for a Christian movie just behind last Fall's Hillsong: Let Hope Rise.
Kudos where kudos are due, Paramount Pictures was trying to help Silence out this weekend by expanding it into 1,580 locations but it didn't help the film as it grossed only $1.1 million, a 42% decline from last weekend and giving it a per-theater average of only $728. Silence has grossed only $5.1 million domestically thus far. Finally, The Red Turtle bowed this weekend to $21,811 at 3 locations for a per-theater average of $7,270.
The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed a total of $127.3 million, up about 29% from this same weekend last year when The Revenant managed to top the box office.
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