| Rank | Title | Domestic Gross (Weekend) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hidden Figures | $26,000,000 | $60,383,100 | 4 |
| 2 | Sing | $19,162,950 | $402,678,470 | 4 |
| 3 | La La Land | $17,500,000 | $132,081,569 | 6 |
| 4 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | $17,128,000 | $983,319,734 | 5 |
| 5 | The Bye Bye Man | $15,310,000 | $16,610,000 | 1 |
*all numbers are for 4 day MLK weekend
Notable Box Office Stories:
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Despite a strong showing by La La Land and many new release options Hidden Figures managed to easily come in at #1 again this week with $26 mil. The biopic has been holding strong, only dropping 8% from last weekend. It seems 20th Century Fox picked a perfect time slot for the film as it's been holding strong above the competition as a major player with a wider appeal to audiences than most of the more new release genre fair out there. There may have been concerns from 20th Century Fox that the film's lack of Golden Globes wins may hurt it but it seems to have struck more of a crowd pleasing inspirational film rote instead. Already the film has made more than $60 mil total, most of that was in just the last two weeks. The film will face tougher competition next week but despite possibly losing #1 the film should maintain course for a while even if it doesn't fair to well at the Oscar nominations (though a Best Picture nomination is a possibility).
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Hot off the heels of a historic Golden Globes sweep, La La Land saw a smaller than expected expansion of 300 theaters for a total of 1,850. It also opened in 150 IMAX theaters which certainly helped the film come in at #3 with $17.5 mil. This marked a 45% increase from last weekend and pushed the film past $75 mil domestic. Even more impressive is overseas where continual strong showings in South Korea as well as recent openings in the UK have made the film pass $100 mil worldwide, a remarkable feat for an original musical. If you are wondering why the film hasn't passed the magic 2,000 theaters marker yet, it seems Lionsgate is waiting for the Oscar nominations for the final push (which makes sense as Oscar noms always show significant bumps to films while Oscar wins have little effect). That will be the last chance for the film to reach #1 but even if it doesn't the film has had a phenomenal run so far and is looking at recording setting possibilities in its future.
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The name may have been mocked by many but the The Bye Bye Man still managed to surprise making $15.3 mil at #5. As is often the case with horror, the built in market was hungry enough for whatever so even a terribly reviewed film with a C rating on Cinemascore can manage to make back twice its budget in its opening weekend. It was also a welcome surprise for STX, who struggled a lot last year and will certainly profit from this low risk, medium reward run. As to be expected from horror and the Cinemascore Bye Bye Man will likely drop like a stone starting next week but the film has already taken the money and ran as it were. With so little competition for horror the film should eek out a small profit by the end.
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Oh, Monster Trucks. The film that proves all you need is a punny title, a dream, and $110 mil to make your own Hollywood flop. Yeah not a big surprise here but indeed Monster Trucks has bombed in its opening, coming in at #6 with $15 mil. As mentioned before Paramount had so little faith in the film that last year it already wrote it off as a $100 mil loss in order to keep it amongst their other 2016 flops. However things were looking slightly up for the film including a pretty cool retro style poster and much better reviews than expected. In fact the film ended up even getting an impressive A rating on Cinemascore. Paramount maybe could have had a decent mid-sized hit on their hands but the budget of course was always looming over it. The film went through dozens of date changes and reports have cited issues including a complete redesign of the film which was initial aiming for more of a teen audience. Quite frankly at this point it seems Paramount just wants the film over and done with. Barring a surprising success overseas Paramount will likely be correct in their write-off. Always great to start out the year with your first bomb!
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While clearly Lionsgate were hoping for an American Sniper runaway surprise hit with Patriots Day, the film ended up underperforming opening at #7 with $13.6 mil. The film faced controversy before opening due to how recently the Boston Bombings occurred but it managed to receive pretty favorable reviews and scored an impressive A+ on Cinemascore. However it could be that people were just too wary or not in the mood for the film as it performed far under the $17 mil - $20 mil expected by the studio. The film's real challenge will now be word of mouth, which could keep the film in the conversation long enough for it to profit. The film is at least in a better spot than last year's Deepwater Horizon, another Peter Berg/Mark Whalberg film about a recent US tragedy that didn't make back its budget. While opening worse than Deepwater, Patriots Day also cost $60 mil less than Deepwater so it has a lot less ground to cover. It will be interesting to see if Patriots Day can overcome the stigma of its existence in the coming weeks but with inspirational comedies and light musicals topping the box office right now I feel it has a long road ahead.
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The appeal of A-listers continues to wain as Sleepless, a new cop thriller starring Jamie Foxx opened at #8 with $9.8 mil. This represents the worst wide release opening for Foxx since 2004's Breakin' All the Rules and marks the third Open Road film in a row to open under $10 mil in wide release. The film scored a B+ on Cinemascore so it will likely drop just a hair, but with such a low opening it doesn't matter much. The film will struggle to make back its $30 mil budget and like a lot of January releases feels like a mediocre dumping ground movie without a home than a major release.
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Poor Ben Affleck. As if divorce, the bad reviews for BvS, and sad Affleck memes weren't enough his long awaited directorial follow-up to Argo is a big fat bomb. Live by Night opened wide to a terrible $6.1 mil at #11. That number puts the opening in the top 200 of worst wide release openings and the top 50 for worst openings for a film in more than 2,500 theaters and the top 200 worst opening weekend per theater averages. A very rough start for a film with a hefty $65 mil price tag. So what went wrong here. Of course marketing is to blame, with seemingly very little of it and what is out there extremely generic. However perhaps more potent is how little attention the film has gotten from awards, scoring nothing in all the major awards and receiving some pretty biting reviews. I think both this and Silence show what happens when a studio gives up on what they consider an awards picture, and Live By Night was left to sink with only Ben Affleck out to promote it. Didn't help that Affleck constantly got more press whenever the word Batman left his mouth then anything he said about the film he made. Live By Night is a classic example of why nominations and buzz matter and how far a film can fall without them.
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Speaking of falling, seems even good reviews can't save a buzzless auteur driven movie as Martin Scorsese's long-awaited film Silence opened with a horrible thud, opening on 750 screens at #16 with $2.3 mil. Alright so admittedly I did fudge the meaning of the phrase "wide release" in the title but I was trying to point out how poorly Silence did do. Granted a depressing almost three hour long film about Catholic missionaries was never going to be a box office smash, but one still expected a much better showing for Scorsese's passion project. For the three day weekend the film had a per theater average of $2,660 and was dropped from 400 theaters by Monday just to make it's MLK numbers look a little better. Also didn't help the film just barely came out in 2016 at all or that the trailer premiered only a month before. Don't expect Paramount to mount much of a campaign either, since they are far more focused on Arrival and Silence is almost guaranteed to be snubbed out of many Academy Awards in a few weeks (especially already being completely snubbed by Globes, SAGs, DGAs, and PGAs). Unfortunately Silence is the example of a challenging film that needs Oscar buzz to live. Without it quite frankly people don't see the need to seek out a depressing film like Silence. Oscar nominations and buzz matter and Silence is proof of that.
Films Reddit Wants to Follow
This is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.
| Title | Domestic Gross (Cume) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Budget | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your Name | N/A | $331,600,000 | Unk | 20 |
| Moonlight | $14,602,900 | $14,602,900 | $5 mil | 13 |
| Doctor Strange | $231,279,408 | $659,224,242 | $165 mil | 11 |
| Arrival | $95,196,000 | $160,196,000 | $47 mil | 10 |
| Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them | $229,871,325 | $801,571,325 | $180 mil | 9 |
Notable Film Closings
| Title | Domestic Gross (Cume) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Accountant | $86,260,045 | $150,360,045 | $44 mil |
| Storks | $72,679,278 | $182,379,278 | $70 mil |
| Jack Reacher: Never Go Back | $58,697,076 | $161,484,189 | $60 mil |
As always /r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.
Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at /r/moviesboxoffice.