This MLK weekend brought one of its biggest openings with Ride Along 2 while newcomers 13 Hours and Norm of the North made very little noise.
Ride Along 2 debuted in first with $41.0 million over the four-day weekend, which makes for the fourth largest Martin Luther King Jr. weekend opener of all time. The Ice Cube-Kevin Hart comedy opened 15.6% below the opening of the first Ride Along - which made $48.6 million over the 2014 MLK weekend. With sequel fatigue already in play, it will be interesting to see how Ride Along 2 holds up during the month. Despite terrible reviews, the first Ride Along rode that $48.6 million opening to a solid $134.9 million domestic. Sequels are generally more front-loaded so it's very unlikely the also negatively-received Ride Along 2 will reach that, especially with rival comedies Dirty Grandpa opening next week and Fifty Shades of Black the week after that. There was only a $40 million budget to cover so Universal walks away clean, but it will be interesting to see if performance is good enough for a Ride Along 3.
The Revenant remained in second with $37.5 million (-5.8%) for the four-day weekend, which is the ninth largest gross a single film made over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. With three Golden Globe wins, 12 Oscar nominations, positive reviews, and the beloved Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead, it's not too surprising that this film held over so well. The violent as hell thriller has racked up $95.7 million domestically and an additional $59.4 million from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $155.1 million against its hefty $135 million budget. The Revenant still has a ways to go before Fox can turn a profit, but they're already popping open the champagne with this one.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was shoved out of the first place spot it held for four weeks. In its fifth weekend, The Force Awakens grossed $33.0 million (-22.0%). Over Fri-Sun, the sci-fi sequel grossed $26.3 million, which would make for the fourth largest fifth weekend gross of all time. The Force Awakens has now racked up $858.9 million domestically, which is almost $100 million more than the $760.5 million domestic total of Avatar (re-release included). It also topped $1 billion from foreign markets for a ridiculous $1.871 billion worldwide total. There's over $315 million to go to beat the $2.186 billion worldwide total of Titanic, which is going to get more and more difficult to achieve as more films come in. It's still very possible for The Force Awakens to top Titanic, but I can't imagine the film would go much farther than that. We still got a couple more weeks before there's a definitive answer there.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi opened in fourth with $19.2 million for the four-day weekend. Reviews are mediocre for Michael Bay's latest, but CinemaScore reports audiences were positive enough for a terrific "A" rating. The budget is a safe $50 million, but 13 Hours is weak compared to the performances of other military movies that went wide in January (Zero Dark Thirty, Lone Survivor, and American Sniper - all of which had stronger critical praise).
Daddy's Home moved to fifth with $11.9 million (-20.7%). The Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg comedy has grossed an excellent $131.8 million domestic since opening on Christmas Day, and brought in a solid $51.3 million from foreign territories against its $50 million budget. It's a bigger hit for Paramount than 13 Hours.
Norm of the North debuted in sixth with $9.3 million. The critically destroyed animation (it actually has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes) cost a mere $18 million to make, and there's a solid chance it won't reach that domestically. Foreign territories will have to give it a serious boost, and that's just not likely to happen.
The Forest placed in seventh with $6.9 million (-45.2%). The $10 million horror film has made a fine $21.3 million domestically in its two weeks in release. Unfortunately for the Natalie Dormer flick, The Boy will take a majority of the audience for The Forest when it opens next weekend. The little bit of money The Forest squeezes out after this week should at least make the film break even with the budget.
The Big Short lost 764 theaters this week and still took in $6.4 million (+4.3%). The five Oscar nominations the film received certainly helped, especially since those noms included Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), and Adapted Screenplay. The Adam McKay financial crisis comedy has grossed $51.7 million domestically in 39 days of release against a $28 million budget. Oh, and there's an extra $18.5 million from foreign markets with some more on the way.
Sisters fell to ninth and took in $5.4 million (-23.8%). The Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy (there's four comedies in the top ten not including the two kid's movies by the way) has grossed a whopping $82.9 million domestically and a little $11.7 million from foreign markets against a $30 million budget.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip placed tenth with $4.3 million (-24.0%). The fourth Chipmunks flick has racked up $81 million domestically in 32 days which is down 33% from the $120.9 million domestic 32-day total of Chipwrecked, the previous film in the franchise that was already a low-point compared to the first two flicks. More foreign markets are on the way to add to the $46.5 million The Road Chip earned so far. So far, the fourth Chipmunks film has grossed $127.5 million worldwide with a $90 million budget to cover. Those extra territories will give the film a much-needed boost, although it doesn't spell too well for the future of the franchise (unless they bring down that budget).
Next weekend sees the release of The Fifth Wave, Dirty Grandpa, and The Boy.
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