Friday Estimates: Hidden Gets the Jump on the Competition with $7.6 million

January 7, 2017

Hidden Figures

It’s looking like a surprisingly close weekend at the box office. The Friday results show three films with a real shot at top spot: Hidden Figures, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Sing. Hidden Figures led the way on Friday with $7.6 million, putting it on pace for between $21 million and $23 million for the weekend. There’s a wide range here, because the studio has made a push to go after African-American churchgoers, so this could really boost the film’s Sunday box office. The film’s legs will be helped by its amazing reviews, as well as its A+ rating from CinemaScore. If it does land on the high end of expectations, then it has a real shot at top spot for the weekend. It does have a lot of competition, on the other hand.

For example, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was second on Friday with $6.05 million, but holdovers tend to have better internal multipliers, so it will earn about $23 million over the weekend. This is a little lower than anticipated, but it remains on pace to top Finding Dory early next week and will become the first (and last) film released in 2016 to surpass $500 million domestically.

Sing earned third place with $5.1 million on Friday. Since it is a family film, it should have the best internal multiplier in the top five and pull in about $23 million over the weekend. It will become the 13th film released in 2016 to top $200 million domestically, doing so on Saturday.

Underworld: Blood Wars was right behind with $5 million on Friday, but it will quickly drop. Its reviews have improved, but are still just 19% positive, while it earned an okay B+ from CinemaScore. Look for an opening weekend of $13 million and a relatively quick exit from theaters.

- Underworld: Blood Wars Comparisons
- Hidden Figures Comparisons

Filed under: Friday Estimates, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Sing, Underworld: Blood Wars, Hidden Figures