“Split” Remains the Choice for Horror Fans for Third Straight Week

By Kip Mooney • On • In News, Weekend Box Office Report News, Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

February 3-5, 2017

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Split $14.5 million
Rings $13.0 million
A Dog's Purpose  $10.8 million
Hidden Figures $10.1 million
La La Land $7.4 million

For the third week in a row, audiences couldn't get enough of M. Night Shyamalan's multiple personality thriller Split. It's just shy of $100 million, and when it passes that in a few days, it will be the first film of 2017 to do so. It's also the first live action movie with an original screenplay to rule for three consecutive weeks since Straight Outta Compton in 2015.

It did a bit better than its only real competition: Rings, the belated sequel to the American remake of the Japanese horror classic. Updated for the viral video age, the film suffered the same fate as 2016's Blair Witch (though this one had a better opening). While it's clear that audiences have had a big appetite for horror for a long time, judging by their box office returns, they'd rather not see something they've seen before.

A Dog's Purpose slid to No. 3, and should probably end up with a healthy $50 million when it's all said and done. Hidden Figures and La La Land continued their race for Best Picture and for the highest-grossing of the major Oscar nominees, far surpassing their competition.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Chapter & Verse, a drama about a Harlem man adjusting to life outside prison. Playing on only one screen in New York, the film took in $32,713.
  • After multiple release date changes, The Space Between Us finally opened. But audiences put a lot of space between themselves and the movie, which debuted at No. 9 with only $3.8 million.
  • The Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro, delivered an impressive debut for a documentary. Playing on 43 screens, it averaged $16,500 on each one.

Next week:

It's an all-out bloodbath as three major releases duke it out. The LEGO Batman Movie should take the top spot with around $70 million. Fifty Shades Darker will titillate adult audiences, but its debut will be off significantly from Fifty Shades of Grey. I'm thinking only $55 million this time around. And John Wick: Chapter 2 will more than double the opening of its predecessor with nearly $30 million.

 

 

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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