“Split” Delivers Killer $40 Million Debut

After months of Star Wars and pleasant inspiration, audiences were looking for chills, and they found it with Split, the latest from scare-master M. Night Shyamalan. Continuing his comeback with more low-budget horror flicks, Split marks the biggest opening for the director since The Last Airbender seven years ago (and may top it once the final numbers are tallied), as well as his best reviews since Signs 15 years ago. That debut, just under Ride Along and Kung Fu Panda 3 for biggest January openings ever also makes it by far the biggest movie of the new year thus far.

That was more than double the latest xXx movie (be careful if you need to Google it), which hasn't had a new entry in more than a decade and been 15 years since Vin Diesel played the super-spy. That $20 million opening is well below even the Ice Cube-starring sequel State of the Union, but not exactly terrible for a belated sequel opening in January. In fact, this is Vin Diesel's best opening since the Fast & Furious franchise re-launched in 2009.

Hidden Figures fell to No. 3, but it's still only dropping marginally from the previous week as audiences continue to flock to the true story. It's sure to pass $100 million at this point. Meanwhile, Sing is about to top $250 million, jumping into the top 10 for 2016. And audiences can't get enough singing from La La Land either. While it had its first significant drop since opening in limited release a month ago, it's bound to pick up many new fans after the Academy Award nominations are announced on Tuesday.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: The Red Turtle: the new, dialogue-free animated film from Studio Ghibli. It averaged $7,270 on each of its three screens.
• The Founder proved to be more Rally's than McDonald's at the box office. The comedy about the Ray Kroc, who stole the McDonald's brand from under the brothers who started the burger joint, only managed $3.7 million.
• But audiences had more faith in that than the Christian dramedy The Resurrection of Gavin Stone. It only managed a meager $1.3 million.

Next week:

A Dog's Purpose would have been my pick for the No. 1 film, but recent viral videos showing alleged animal abuse will likely drive away some of its audience. So I think Split will repeat, again vanquishing the latest chapter in a 15-year-old franchise (Resident Evil). But expect a total closer to $25 million.