“Rings” Won’t Keep “Split” From Topping the Box Office Again Over Super Bowl Weekend

	Split	$14.4 million
	Rings	$11.7 million
	A Dog’s Purpose	$11 million
	Hidden Figures	$10.2 million
	La La Land	$8.5 million

Horror will reign supreme at the box office over Super Bowl weekend, but numbers will be low all around, which is typical for this weekend. After all, the Super Bowl is still one of the most-watched television events of the year. But there are going to be some people who go the movies this weekend, right? There’s still Friday and Saturday. Absolutely they will — and they’ll choose, once again, for the third weekend in a row, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split over all other fares, including another spooky film opening this weekend.

There’s a lot going for Split right now — conversation is still surrounding the film, from talks about Shyamalan’s comeback to the surprise cameo and lead actor James McAvoy’s impressive performance, so it’s not hard to see why it’s continuing to do so well. It’s slated to, once again, fall less than 50 percent which is an impressive feat against the backdrop of the Super Bowl and it’s also another improvement on Shyamalan’s record. Even with other films opening this weekend, some in direct competition, the positive buzz surrounding this thriller should be able to keep it on top as it reaches for a domestic total above the $100 million mark (its worldwide total has already crossed that milestone).

So what’s this other spooky film opening in competition with Split? That would be Rings, the third film following 2002’s The Ring and 2005’s The Ring Two. Unlike Split, this film has things working against it. Namely, similar to a lot of other sequels that have been coming out in droves, it’s been over a decade since anyone cared about this film. There’s also the small fact that the film didn’t screen for critics, which is usually an indicator the studio has little faith in the film. Plus, very few people are actually talking about this film right now, similar to most of the new films that open this time of year, and it’s also opening in 400 less theaters than Split will be in as it adds nearly 200 theaters to its total. Where Rings might succeed, however, is in its genre — as we’ve seen time and time again, horror films have a tendency to do well, even surprisingly well.

	Opening Weekend	Current Gross	Facebook Likes	Tweets
Split	$40m	$82.6m	45,494	31,880
Rings	N/A	N/A	2,626,868	9,512
A Dog’s Purpose	$18.2m	$21.2m	12,267	N/A
Hidden Figures	$515,499	$108m	17,420	80,288
La La Land	$881,104	$109.9m	82,358	253,754

Next up is likely to be A Dog’s Purpose, which suffered a slightly smaller opening than the studio had been hoping for after the controversy, but is still polling relatively well with audiences. It has one of the largest differences in ratings between critics and audiences. While critics on Rotten Tomatoes have given the film a 33 percent, audiences are at 74 percent. Plus, it has less of a chance to fall further than 50 percent, which is something movies always strive to do from week to week, especially in their first to second weeks. The film is also expanding by 120 theaters for a total close to 3,200 theaters, and giving more people an opportunity to see the film also never hurts (unless, of course, no one goes to see it and then it’s just embarassing but that won’t happen here).

	Rotten Tomatoes		IMDb	Metacritic
	Critics	Users	Stars
Split	74	82	7.5	62
Rings	N/A	N/A	5.4	N/A
A Dog’s Purpose	33	74	3.7	43
Hidden Figures	93	94	7.9	74
La La Land	93	86	8.6	93

However, one of the most interesting things to watch for this weekend is the continued race between Best Picture contenders Hidden Figures and La La Land. While Figures is likely to come out on top, it’s their domestic totals people will want to keep an eye on. Their domestic totals, both over $100 million, are just under $2 million apart, with Figures at $108 million and La La Land nearly to $110 million. Depending on how much better Figures does this weekend (and it will do better), it could surpass La La Land’s domestic total once and for all. There’s also the likelihood that La La Land will be surpassed and knocked off the top five if newcomer The Space Between Us is able to overtake it but a weak marketing campaign and lack of visibility should give La La Land the edge. Not to mention until the Oscars are over (and even after, frankly), La La Land still has a wave to ride.

Besides The Space Between Us making it into the top ten, the other films that should be contenders include Return of Xander Cage, Resident Evil, Sing, and another Oscar nominee that hasn’t gotten much box office love, Lion. But really the question remains: How much will the Super Bowl truly affect things this weekend?

(Sources: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com, rottentomatoes.com, imdb.com, metacritic.com. Tweets and Likes represent figures for this week only. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed. Tracking Board does not report Rotten Tomatoes user ratings for movies that have not yet seen wide release.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor