The weekend arrived with new movies offering a little bit of everything — cutesy family fare, another franchise sequel, and an A-list drama vehicle — but audiences wanted more M. Night Shyamalan.
“Split” topped the box office for the second straight week, bringing in an excellent $26.2 million, and seeing a week-to-week drop of 34.3%. Generally speaking, thriller/horror fare starts off big, then fades away fast, but it seems word-of-mouth and strong reviews are keeping the movie tickets selling for this one. Shyamalan is now looking at his first movie to crack $100 million domestically in seven years (it’s already achieved that mark worldwide), and it will wind up being his third best outing ever behind “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs.” That’s a helluva turnaround for the filmmaker who is clearly back in the good graces of moviegoers.
READ MORE: Suspense-Filled ‘Split’ Is A Return To Form For M. Night Shyamalan [Review]
Despite controversy swirling around the production about the alleged abuse of animals on set, it seems it didn’t stop plenty of people from watching the dog reincarnation movie “A Dog’s Purpose.” The film tallied $18.3 million, and while it’s not going to break the bank, with a budget of $22 million it’ll turn a tidy profit, which is all Universal can ask for from a movie that was otherwise thrashed by critics.
Diminishing returns greeted “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,” with the franchise running out of steam with a launch of $13.8 million. It’s the lowest opening ever for any film in the series, but once again, the tale of the tape is overseas, where the movie has already bagged $64.5 million. That already puts the global total at $78 million, and considering the budget was $40 million, that’s nothing to sneeze at. However, don’t expect Milla Jovovich to put on the pleather again.
Met with middling reviews and not much heat, Matthew McConaughey‘s “Gold” just barely grabbed the last spot on the top ten with $3.4 million. You’d have to look at 2006’s “We Are Marshall” to find another McConaughey-led wide release as low as this one. And coming on the heels of “Free State Of Jones” and “The Sea Of Trees,” it marks a pretty bad run for the actor who was once untouchable thanks to his McConaissance. Here’s hoping he can bounce back with the blockbuster “The Dark Tower,” otherwise things are really going to start looking dire.
READ MORE: The Copper-Alloyed ‘Gold’ With Matthew McConaughey Can’t Strike It Rich [Review]
Elsewhere at the box office, Oscar Best Picture frontrunner “La La Land” continues to dazzle, with Lionsgate adding over 1,200 screens this weekend, seeing 43% jump in ticket sales, and bringing in $12 million domestic. With another $23.5 million abroad, the musical has now danced to $223 million worldwide.
In larger box office milestones, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” keeps climbing and is now the second highest grossing film of 2016. All that stands in its way for #1 is “Captain America: Civil War.” The “Star Wars” movie is also now the second highest grossing film in the Lucasfilm franchise domestically and around the globe, not counting inflation (and yes, that’s a totally different story).
At the arthouse, Asghar Farhadi‘s “The Salesman” earned $71,071 on three screens. And besides being a Best Foreign Film nominee, cinephiles should also be checking this out both as support for Farhadi, who is one of millions targeted by Trump’s “extreme vetting,” and an act of protest against the Demagogue-In-Chief.
1. “Split” — $26.2 million ($77.9 mil.)
2. “A Dog’s Purpose” — $18.3 million
3. “Hidden Figures” — $14 million ($104 mil.)
4. “Residen Evil: The Final Chapter” — $13.8 million
5. “La La Land” — $12 million ($106.5 mil.)
6. “xXx: Return Of Xander Cage” — $8.2 million ($33.4 mil.)
7. “Sing” — $6.2 million ($257.4 mil.)
8. “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” — $5.1 million ($520 mil.)
9. “Monster Trucks” — $4.1 million ($28.1 mil.)
10. “Gold” — $3.4 million