“Split” Tops the Box Office Over Super Bowl Weekend, While “Hidden Figures” Finally Beats “La La Land”
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Film | Weekend | Opening Weekend | Current Gross | |
Split | $14.4m | $40m | $98.5m | |
Rings | $13m | $13m | $13m | |
A Dog’s Purpose | $10.5m | $18.2m | $32.6m | |
Hidden Figures | $10.1m | $515,499 | $119.4m | |
La La Land | $7.3m | $881,104 | $118.2m |
As expected, the Super Bowl was able to keep the box office from reaching any sort of heights this past weekend, as movies fell about where they were expected to, with lower totals than they would have hit on any other weekend. In fact, this year’s Super Bowl box office was slightly down from last year’s, when the top twelve amassed $82 million total, as opposed to this weekend’s top twelve reaching $80.2 million. These lower numbers are typical for Super Bowl weekend, as explored in a piece published earlier.
For the third weekend in a row, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split emerged the victor once actuals from Friday through Sunday were tallied. The thriller, which was been a breakout hit for the director who had been in something of poor graces for the past several years, is now only $1.5 million away from reaching $100 million domestically and even if this is its final weekend in the number one spot, it will still be able to achieve this mark. It’s the first film by Shyamalan since The Sixth Sense to remain in the number one spot for so long. Globally, the film is nearly to $142 million and will likely cross $150 million in due time, making it a hugely profitable film with its minimal budget of $9 million. There’s simply no arguing that Shyamalan is back and the dedicated fans who refused to give up on him are very pleased right now.
Horror film Rings came just behind Split, earning a total of $13 million domestically and $15.5 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $28.5 million. It’s certainly not a bad start, especially for a film a decade too late and that no one particularly had any interest in (given it made nearly $30 million this weekend, I am, of course, being hyperbolic), but there should be no expectations to see it doing well going forward or finding itself in the top five again. It’s about to face even more stiff competition this weekend and it will likely slip away into the shadows without another thought. It’s the smallest opening for the franchise, only $2 million behind the first film in 2002 but a whopping $22 million behind the first sequel in 2005 (back when this franchise was still relevant). The first film went on to make $129 million totally domestically after becoming a much talked about hit, while The Ring Two made $76 million. It’s unlikely this film will get anywhere near those totals.
Meanwhile, after an independent investigation proved there was no malicious wrongdoing on the set of A Dog’s Purpose, the film fell 41 percent in its second weekend to make $10.5 million. Whether or not this controversy has truly marred the film is hard to tell and the same goes for this new investigation. Likely, people who had resolved not to see the film after the initial video was released won’t be seeing the film either way. The film is a pretty ideal title for an early year release. It was never going to make major splashes — critically or financially — so even though the controversy likely hurt the film, it was never going to stay in the headlines for long.
Finally, in the race between Hidden Figures and La La Land, neatly paralleling the space race depicted in Figures, the former has finally beaten out the latter. On a week-to-week basis, Figures has been doing better than La La Land for some time now, but the real story is that Figures’ total — now at $119 million — is officially more than La La Land‘s. Both films, however, are doing remarkably well, especially leading up to the Oscars on February 26, for which both films are nominated for numerous awards, including Best Picture.
This weekend coming up, three new films open in wide release — Fifty Shades Darker, John Wick 2, and The LEGO Batman Movie — and they’re bound to change things up.
(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)
Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor