Weekend Estimates: Deadpool Continues to Dominate with $55 Million Weekend

February 21, 2016

Deadpool

After a $132 million opening, Deadpool wasn’t under much threat at the top of the chart this weekend, so a fairly sharp 58% decline to $55 million this weekend still leaves it dominant in movie theaters. That softness might be a slight concern going forwards, but for now Fox is reveling in having a February hit that has already grossed close to $500 million worldwide (Sunday’s official estimate is $491.9 million), and having Kung Fu Panda 3 hold on to second place with $12.5 million in its fourth weekend for a domestic total of $117 million. That left the three new wide releases fighting for places lower down the chart, although their performance was by no means all doom and gloom.

Risen will land in third place this weekend with $11.8 million. While not huge by absolute standards, it’s one of the best openings ever for a faith-based film behind The Passion of the Christ, Heaven is for Real, and Son of God. With low marketing costs and Easter coming up, the film could have a good run in theaters.

The Witch will finish fourth for the weekend with $8.7 million from 2,046 theaters. Again, that’s nothing huge, but it’s a solid number for a supernatural thriller at this time of year, and good for a film that reportedly had a low marketing budget, not to mention a production budget of only $3.5 million.

Rather more disappointing, Race can only muster a sixth-place finish this weekend with a projected $7.275 million weekend for Focus Features. The film is getting decent reviews and positive audience reactions, so this is a very disappointing weekend. Perhaps its proximity to the Oscars is hurting, with plenty of other high-quality productions to choose from.

In limited release, Chinese all-time box office champ The Mermaid is opening with a projected $1.015 million from just 35 theaters, for an average of close to $30,000. Whether it can cross over to become a broader hit is an open question, but clearly there’s a high level of interest in the film among the Chinese population in the United States.

Two other foreign films doing well this weekend are Embrace of the Serpent, which will post around $50,000 from three theaters, and Neerja, with $585,300 from 73 locations.

- Weekend estimates
- Deadpool comparisons
- Risen comparisons
- Race comparisons
- The Witch comparisons

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Deadpool, Kung Fu Panda 3, Risen, Race, The Witch, El abrazo de la serpiente, Neerja, Mei Ren Yu