Weekend Wrap-Up: Hidden Figures is in the Spotlight earning $22.80 million

January 10, 2017

Hidden Figures

The first weekend of the year wasn’t as potent as anticipated, as none of the holdovers held on as well as expected. This helped Hidden Figures earn first place with $22.80 million, putting it just ahead of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which pulled in $22.06 million. The box office was down 26% from last weekend to $137 million, but this is a post-holiday weekend, so this decline was expected. The box office was also down 14% from this weekend last year. It is still way too soon to compare the box office year-over-year. In fact, we should wait till The Force Awakens faded out of the top five before we can really get a picture of how 2017 will do. That was President’s Day long weekend. So once we get past President’s Day long weekend, the year-over-year comparison will begin it have some real value.

Hidden Figures expanded wide and launched itself into first place with $22.80 million over the weekend for a total of $25.75 million. Given its award-worthy reviews and its A+ from CinemaScore, not to mention the number of Awards Season nominations it has already earned, the film should remain in theaters for quite some time. In fact, there are three major nominations being announced this week and if the film does well in all three, it could have the best hold in the top ten next weekend.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was very close behind with $22.06 million over the weekend for a total of $477.36 million after four weeks of release. Next weekend is MLK Day long weekend, so the film could hit $500 million by the end of business next Monday. It will certainly top Finding Dory along the way earning first place on the 2016 domestic chart.

Sing was next with $20.71 million over the weekend for a total of $214.51 million after three weeks of release. At this pace, the film could be in the top ten for the year, as early as this coming weekend. There’s a huge jump between tenth place and ninth place, so that is as far as it will go.

Underworld: Blood Wars beat our prediction, barely, with $13.69 million during its opening weekend, but that was still the worst opening in the franchise, by huge margin. Furthermore, its reviews are awful and thanks to the Sequel Effect and the genre, it will likely have rather short legs. Granted, the film should do a lot better internationally; in fact, it could earn $100 million internationally. However, even if it did, it will still struggle to break even any time soon.

La La Land expanded semi-wide and that helped it secure fifth place with $10.13 million over the weekend for a total of $51.79 million after a month of release. Its theater average suggests it will be able to expand further, while its domination of the Golden Globes this weekend suggests it will remain in theaters until after the Oscars are handed out.

Passengers was knocked out of the top five with with $8.82 million over the weekend for a total of $80.91 million after three weeks of release. This film could last long enough to get to $100 million domestically, with a small push from the studio. Will that happen? Well, on the one hand, Sony had a terrible 2016 and having a third $100 million hit would at least save face. On the other hand, Sony had a terrible 2016 and they might not want to throw good money at a movie that’s not going to break even.

- Weekend Box Office Chart

- Underworld: Blood Wars Comparisons
- Hidden Figures Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Passengers, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Sing, La La Land, Underworld: Blood Wars, Hidden Figures, Underworld