Get Out Has Scarily Good Opening Weekend While Rock Dog Gets Put To Sleep And Collide Gets Its Brakes Cut

Just before March 2017 arrives with its deluge of blockbusters, February 2017 closed out with a small original horror movie taking command of the box office. Jordan Peele's directorial debut Get Out was the number one movie in America this weekend, generating a fantastic $30.5 million debut.  That's 16% above the opening weekend of Don't Breathe and one of the bigger non-sequel horror movie debuts in quite some time. This is especially impressive given that Get Out didn't have a huge source material or well-known actors leading it, it just got to such impressive financial heights thanks to marketing campaign that highlighted its unique and socially relevant premise.


Like Don't Breathe and fellow early 2017 Blumhouse Productions sleeper hit Split, do not be surprised in the least if Get Out manages to hold on extremely well in the coming weeks, especially since there's only one new horror movie (The Belko Experiment) opening over the next eight weeks. Plus, Get Out held extremely well over the weekend and wasn't frontloaded at all in contrast to many other horror movies. All in all, Get Out is off to a phenomenal box office start that instantly makes this one of the more notable sleeper hits of 2017.

The LEGO Batman Movie came in at second place this weekend with $19 million, a 42% drop that's bigger than the third-weekend declines of fellow early February family movies from Warner Bros. like The LEGO Movie and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. LEGO Batman has now grossed $133 million in 17 days. In third place was John Wick: Chapter Two, grossing a strong $9.3 million, only a 43% drop from last weekend, for a 17-day domestic total of $74.7 million. If fellow R-rated action movie sequel Logan wasn't coming out this weekend, I'd say John Wick: Chapter 2 had a strong chance of clearing $100 million domestically. Even with Logan around the corner though, John Wick's newest movie should have no problem ending its domestic run around $90 million.

The Great Wall crumbled after a lackluster domestic opening weekend, dropping 53% to add only $8.7 million to a domestic cume that now stands at $34.4 million. We shall see if this one can eke past $50 million domestically. Fifty Shades Darker whipped up (see what I did there??) another $7.7 million this weekend, a 62% plummet from last weekend. The newest Fifty Shades movie has now amassed $103.6 million domestically, making it the third movie of 2017 (following Split and The LEGO Batman Movie) to cross $100 million domestically. Fist Fight made another $6.3 million this weekend, a 48% drop from its debut that means it's now grossed a middling $23.1 million.

Three of the remaining four spots in the top ten were occupied by Best Picture nominees. One such Best Picture nominee was Hidden Figures, which continued to do incredible business as it grossed another $5.8 million, an 18% dip from last weekend that means the inspirational drama has now grossed $152.8 million. La La Land stayed exactly even with its cume last weekend, taking in another $4.6 million, putting it at $140.8 million domestically. Split may not be a Best Picture nominee but it's still doing incredible business, with it having holding solidly even in the face of a new Blumhouse horror movie. Grossing another $4.1 million (a 42% drop from last weekend), Split has now grossed $130.8 million domestically. Rounding out the top ten was Lion, which has really impressed in its box office prowess this past month. Lion took in another $3.8 million (a 9% dip from last weekend) and brought its domestic total to $42.8 million. Looks like this will become only the thirteenth movie ever from The Weinstein Company to cross $50 million domestically.

With only $3.7 million accumulated in its opening weekend, Rock Dog was a bad dog indeed. Only five computer-animated films in history have debuted in wide release to worse opening weekends than that. This is the third straight computer-animated family film to bomb at the box office for Lionsgate (following Norm Of The North and The Wild Life).  There's not much else to say here other than note that this only the second wide release movie Luke Wilson has appeared in since April 2010.

Fellow new wide release Collide also bombed after a 16-month delay from its original October 2015 release date. Grossing only $1.5 million, this was the sixth worst opening weekend for a movie opening in over 2,000 theaters. It looks like this one will usurp Desperate Hours as the lowest-grossing wide release domestically ever for Anthony Hopkins. Considering Open Road Films started promoting this movie only six weeks prior to its release and from there did barely any promotional work at all, it's no surprise this one is already on track to becoming one of 2017's biggest flops.

After a disastrous opening weekend, A Cure For Wellness plummeted 68% to gross only $1.3 million this weekend. The nwest Gore Verbinski movie has only grossed $7.4 million through ten days and is unlikely to crack $10 million. Moonlight expanded back into 585 theaters and grossed another $765,908 for a current domestic total of $22.2 million. Also expanding into more theaters was A United Kingdom, which went into 145 theaters and grossed another $548,000 for a current domestic total of $1 million. Debuting in 127 theaters this weekend was the romantic drama Bitter Harvest, which bowed to an underwhelming $207,235. Finally, Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee My Life as A Zucchini bowed this weekend in 2 locations and grossed $28,206, the fifth best opening weekend ever for indie studio GKIDS.

The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed $106.9 million, the sixth biggest eighth weekend in any given year. February 2017 has currently grossed $738.4 million. With two days to go in the month, it looks like February 2017 will narrowly surpass the $754.7 million monthly gross of February 2010 to become the fifth biggest February on record.