A massive winter snowstorm that affected nearly 80 million people on the East Coast this weekend also helped push box office sales down a sharp 32% from one week ago. NFL Championship games and a trio of unappealing new offerings didn’t help matters much either.
Given the weather, it seems only appropriate that a wilderness survival tale would work its way to the top spot of the North American box office.
The Fox hit The Revenant moved up to the number one spot this weekend for the first time since its nationwide expansion on January 8th. The Revenant earned an estimated $16 million from 3,711 theaters, a decrease of 50% from the previous weekend. The Leonardo DiCaprio hit has earned $119 million. Depending on how well the film holds up over the next few weeks, The Revenant could work its way to the $200 million domestic mark. Foreign totals so far for The Revenant stand at $104 million.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens also moved up a spot –from third to second- as the blockbuster added another $14.3 million from 3,365 theaters. Off 46%, the latest chapter of the durable franchise has brought in $879.2 million in North America and an additional $1.06 billion overseas. The two biggest foreign markets for the J.J. Abrams feature have been the United Kingdom with $170 million and China with $113 million.
Universal’s Ride Along 2 hit a pothole in its second weekend on 3,192 screens. The Ice Cube sequel dropped a steep 63% to earn an estimated $13 million, bringing its ten-day total to $59 million. The film is on course to finish around the $85 million mark, a solid figure for the $40 million production but roughly 40% lower than its predecessor.
A trio of critically panned new arrivals landed in fourth through sixth place to mild grosses.
Lionsgate’s raunchy R-rated comedy Bad Grandpa opened in fourth place on 2,912 theaters with a weak $11.5 million. Critics savaged the Robert DeNiro/Zac Effron feature, bestowing it with a dire eight percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
STX’s low-budget horror film The Boy scared up an estimated $11.3 million from 2,671 theaters. The PG-13 thriller earned a 25% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating.
Sony’s $38 million The 5th Wave landed in sixth place with a puddle-sized $10.7 million from 2,908 theaters. The sci-fi flick eked out a 19% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.
The remainder of the top ten:
- 13 Hours (Paramount) $9.7 million (-40%); $33.5 million
- Daddy’s Home (Paramount) $5.2 million (-45%); $139 million
- Norm of the North (Lionsgate) $4.1 million (-40%); $14.2 million
- The Big Short (Paramount) $3.5 million (-34%); $56.7 million
Next weekend sees the arrival of Fifty Shades of Black, The Finest Hours and Kung Fu Panda 3.
