Weekend Wrap-Up: Hidden Figures Really Helps the Box Office with $27.51 million
January 18, 2017
As expected, Hidden Figures remained in first place as the box office was dominated by holdovers. The best of the new releases / wide expansions was The Bye Bye Man, which earned fifth place with $15.20 million. On the positive side, while there was only one film to earn more than $20 million over the weekend, there were seven that earned $10 million or more. That’s really good depth. It’s good enough for an 8.5% increase from last weekend reaching $149 million. However, this is still 10% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2017 is behind 2016 by 15% at $562 million to $659 million, but again, it is way too soon to make any predictions.
Hidden Figures remained in first place with $27.51 million over the four-day weekend for a running tally of $61.89 million after three weeks of release. It became the first film with multiple female leads to repeat as box office champion since The Help did it back in August of 2011. The film’s reviews and its performance during Awards Season will help it last in theaters for a long time. In fact, it might get a boost next week, if it becomes a multi-Oscar nominated film. Regardless, it has a clear path to $100 million domestically, while it should do even better on the home market. I suspect this film will be purchased by a lot of schools to show their students over and over again.
Sing got a major boost thanks to holiday Monday and that helped it earn second place with $19.03 million over the four days for a total of $238.24 million. It is now in tenth place on the 2016 domestic chart; however, since the ninth place film is close to $100 million ahead of it, it won’t climb any further.
La La Land pulled in $17.72 million over the four-day weekend for a total of $77.30 million after six weeks of release. More impressively, the film hasn’t expanded truly wide yet, but it should get there this weekend, just in time for next week’s Oscar nominations. I think it is overrated; it’s a great movie, but not one of the best of the year. Even so, I think it deserves its box office success.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story earned fourth place with $16.81 million over the weekend for a total of $501.90 million after a month of release. It became the only film released in 2016 to reach the $500 million milestone this weekend, while it is just the seventh film to reach that milestone in the history of cinema.
The best of the new releases / wide expansions was The Bye Bye Man with $15.20 million over the full four-day weekend. Its reviews are just 27% positive, while it earned a mere C from CinemaScore. This suggests short legs, but the film cost just $7.4 million to make, so unless it cost more than twice that to advertise, it will break even before it hits the home market.
Monster Trucks was the biggest wide release in terms of theater count, opening in 3,119 theaters. However, it only managed sixth place on the weekend chart with $14.17 million. The film’s reviews are just 33% positive, but it earned a solid A from CinemaScore, which suggests a very heavy reliance on families for its audience. This should actually help its legs going forward. That said, it cost $125 million to make, so it’s not going to break even. It might not lose $115 million either, so it’s not as bad as the studio thought it would be.
Patriots Day was next with $13.75 million during its four-day weekend for a total of $14.68 million, including its limited release run. Its reviews are amazing and it earned an A+ from CinemaScore; however, its weak box office numbers shows it doesn’t have a lot of crossover appeal.
Up next is Sleepless with $9.77 million over the four day weekend. This is actually a little better than predicted, but not enough to matter in the long run. It had the worst reviews of the weekend, but a B+ from CinemaScore, while the low theater average will lead to a short stay in theaters.
Live by Night missed the top ten with just $6.00 million over the four-day weekend for a total of $6.19 million. Its reviews are only 33% positive, while it managed a B from CinemaScore. None of this suggests long legs.
Silence didn’t expand wide as it was scheduled to do and it barely managed a spot in the top 20 with $2.37 million over the weekend for a total of $3.47 million. It was a passion project for Martin Scorsese and the reviews show that passion. However, it’s going to disappear quickly from theaters and lose a lot of money at the box office.
Looking in at the sophomore class, the only film is Underworld: Blood Wars. It fell 55% to $6.21 million over the three-day weekend, while it pulled in $7.26 million over four. Its two-week total is $25.38 million, but it won’t climb to much higher than that. It also struggled during its most recent round of international openings, so the chances it will break even any time soon took a real hit.
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Silence, Monster Trucks, Live by Night, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Bye Bye Man, Sing, Patriots Day, La La Land, Underworld: Blood Wars, Hidden Figures, Martin Scorsese