Weekend Wrap-Up, Mostly: Rogue Sings Above the Rest with $96.12 million

December 28, 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is always a mess, as getting information from studios can be hard. For example, Sony, Warner Bros., and a lot of smaller studios are not releasing any box office numbers until January 3rd. On the one hand, good for them for allowing their employees who do this particular job to have a full week off. On the other hand, it does make our job harder, as we are stuck with less accurate estimates until then. Worse still, Passengers’ performance is one of the most interesting stories to talk about. More on that below. As for the actual box office numbers, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dominated with $96.12 million over the four-day weekend. Only Sing was remotely close to that with $54.93 million. Although, it was a Wednesday release so its six-day opening was $75.44 million and that’s impressive. The rest of the films in the top five were less impressive. Both Passengers and Assassin’s Creed cost a lot to make and neither will break even. Why Him? will need long legs to become a midlevel hit, but Christmas time tends to give a film long legs. Meanwhile, with only two days of numbers, it is too soon to tell how well Fences will do. Due to the lack of final numbers it is impossible to compare these box office numbers to last week or last year. Suffice it to say, 2016 will come out ahead in the year-over-year comparison when it comes to box office numbers, but not ticket sales. It is currently approximately $300 million ahead by the former measure, but 6 million behind by the latter.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story added $64.03 million / $96.12 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $318.12 million. At this pace, the film will hit $400 million domestically early this coming weekend and it will have no trouble overtaking Finding Dory on the domestic yearly chart. It won’t match The Force Awakens, but it is coming closer than almost everyone expected, so that’s good news for the box office.

Sing was the only new release of the week that was a big hit earning $35.26 million over the three-day weekend, $54.93 million if you include Boxing Day Monday, and $75.44 million from Wednesday through Monday. Its reviews rose to 72% positive, which is very good for a kids movie and should ensure it remains in theaters for a while allowing it to rapidly climb the yearly chart.

According to estimates, Passengers placed third with $14.6 million over the three-day weekend, while it opened with $22.55 million including Monday and $29.88 million in total. This is the second biggest debut of the weekend, but it really needed $29.88 million over the three-day weekend to be a success. Its relatively weak theater average and its weaker reviews will hurt its legs. This is interesting, as it creates a real race between Jennifer Lawrence and Kevin Hart for top spot in our Highest Grossing Stars of 2016 at the Domestic Box Office Chart with Kevin Hart ahead by 34 points. If Passengers could reach 67th place, then Jennifer Lawrence will retain her crown. This seemed trivial at the beginning of the month, but not after this start. Fortunately for her, Kevin Hart has a few films on this year’s chart that will be knocked down a few spots due to late releases. In fact, there’s a slim chance What Now? could be knocked out of the top 100 entirely. It’s worth keeping an eye on.

Why Him? actually managed fourth place with $11.02 million / $15.54 million. It actually fell on Boxing Day and unless a film opened on Christmas Day, falling on Boxing Day is a bad sign. Its reviews are 40% positive, which is fine for this type of film and it should become a midlevel hit.

Assassin’s Creed managed fifth place with openings of $10.28 million / $14.80 million / $22.29 million. This is a terrible start for a film that cost $110 million to make. Worse still, its reviews are already taking a toll on its legs. The lack of new releases this week will help, but it very likely will start losing theaters in January.

Moana was knocked out of the top five, but was close with $7.71 million / $12.55 million over the weekend for a total of $185.59 million. It will get to $200 million early this weekend, but Sing’s strong opening has clearly hurt its legs.

The final wide expansion of the week was Fences, which only expanded on Christmas Day earning $6.69 million. Including its limited release numbers and Boxing Day Monday, the film managed a four-day weekend of $11.60 million for a running tally of $11.79 million. Its reviews and its early Awards Season success should keep it in theaters for a long time.

- Weekend Box Office Chart

- Sing Comparisons
- Passengers Comparisons
- Assassin’s Creed Comparisons
- Why Him? Comparisons
- Fences Comparisons

Filed under: Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lawrence