In a very boring weekend at the box office, three new films barely made any noise as The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens continue to rock.
The Revenant reached first place at the box office for the first time in its three weeks of wide release. This weekend, the Leonardo DiCaprio survival thriller made $16.0 million (-49.6%) for a $119.2 million domestic total. Foreign markets have contributed $104.2 million to the film's $223.4 million worldwide total. The film has yet to recoup its massive $135 million price tag, but it's well on its way to do so.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens secured second with $14.0 million (-46.6%). The domestic count stands at an eye-popping $879.1 million in 38 days, with foreign markets adding an extra $1.06 billion to that count - the top three markets are the UK ($173.3 million), China ($114.2 million), and Germany ($103.5 million). With $1.939 billion in the bank, J.J. Abrams' $200 million franchise re-starter stands about $247 million away from the $2.186 billion worldwide total of Titanic. Will it become the second highest-grossing film of all time worldwide? It's going to be close, but I'm betting on Titanic to come out on top. The Force Awakens made $37.5 million worldwide this weekend (domestic and foreign combined), according to Rentrak. Force Awakens will need over six more of these weekends to beat Titanic, and the competition is only going to get more tough as pandas, anti-heroes, and more crowd the marketplace. The Force Awakens will join the $2 billion club though, so that's still something.
Ride Along 2 was bumped from first to third on its second weekend with $12.4 million (-64.7%). The Ice Cube-Kevin Hart comedy sequel has grossed $58.6 million domestically in its 10 days of release, down 22.3% from the $75.5 million 10-day total of 2014's Ride Along. Considering how hard the second weekend drop is for Ride Along 2, that 22.3% is set to grow. Ride Along 2 will make enough to cover its $40 million budget, but it will be a sizable step down from the first one. A third ride may be out of reach.
Dirty Grandpa opened in fourth with $11.111 million. The universally panned R-rated comedy faced plenty of competition from the three previously mentioned films, as well as the fact that Zac Efron's young female fans probably don't have much interest in seeing a raunchy racist sexist Robert De Niro for 102 minutes. The film's budget is unknown, but it's probably modest. Modest enough for this to be a success? Maybe, but Dirty Grandpa will most definitely leave theaters in lightning speed so pray it's small.
The Boy debuted in fifth with $10.7 million. The Lauren Cohan horror flick was made for a light $10 million, so it's guaranteed to at least make something at the end of the day. Reviews are largely negative, so it will probably hold over about as well as horror films usually do (pretty bad). But the budget is so small that the film doesn't have to do any better than that to succeed.
The 5th Wave was $400k short of fifth place with a $10.3 million opening. The poorly-received sci-fi action flick starring Chloë Grace Moretz had a $38 million budget. Its domestic prospects are essentially dead, but foreign markets have contributed a decent $27.4 million so far. They appear to be the saving grace for Sony's soon-to-be forgotten young adult adaption. Don't expect them to adapt the novel's sequel, as this one looks like it will barely get through (if it does at all).
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi made $9.0 million (-44.2%) in its second weekend. The $50 million Michael Bay action flick has grossed $32.7 million domestically, leaving plenty of room for foreign markets to come in and help get back the budget. They almost certainly will when they eventually come into play, for even though January military movies like Zero Dark Thirty, Lone Survivor, and American Sniper made a vast majority of their worldwide totals domestically, 13 Hours seens more "action" than "military drama" from the advertisements (I have not seen it). That should broaden its appeal outside the States, where the stories are more resonant. There should be enough support from foreign markets to round out the budget, but this will certainly be seen as a weak point for director Michael Bay.
Daddy's Home finished in eighth this weekend with $4.9 million (-48.3%). The $50 million comedy has grossed a terrific $138.4 million domestically in 31 days. It's Will Ferrell's third highest grossing live-action film domestically (behind Elf and Talladega Nights) and Mark Wahlberg's fifth highest grossing film domestically.
Norm of the North fell to ninth in its second weekend with $3.8 million (-44.1%). Rob Schneider's polar bear animation was made for $18 million and has grossed $14 million domestically. If foreign territories can squeeze out a bit of cash, they can at least even out the budget. But with Kung Fu Panda 3 hitting a bunch of territories this weekend (with many more to come in March), Norm of the North doesn't have much time before it's absolutely destroyed.
The Big Short rounded out the top ten with $3.1 million (-40.1%). The Oscar-nominated and highly-buzzed about financial crisis comedy has grossed a solid $56.3 million domestically in its 45 days of release. Foreign markets have brought the worldwide total to a nice $87 million off a $28 million budget.
Next weekend sees the release of Fox's Kung Fu Panda 3, Disney's The Finest Hours, and Open Road Films' Fifty Shades of Black.
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