It’s been a helluva week, with Donald Trump becoming the first Buffoon In Chief of the United States, while women hit the streets around the world to protest the misogynist, xenophobic new leader of the free world. And somewhere in there, moviegoers found time to make the new movie from Indian-American M. Night Shyamalan the number one picture at the box office. Rebellions are built on hope…
Riding strong reviews, “Split” wowed with $40 million and change to take the top spot at the multiplex this weekend and become the fourth-biggest January opening of all time. Even more, ticket buyers were nearly equally split among age, gender and race, making this a rare thriller playing to nearly everybody. The film is one of Shyamalan’s best openings of his career, following “Signs,” “The Village,” and a shade behind the execrable “The Last Airbender” (which also launched on about 100 more screens). “Split” is also one of the best showings for James McAvoy outside the “X-Men” franchise, with only “Wanted” debuting to better numbers. It’s a big success all around, particularly for Shyamalan, who, after a bit of a fallow period, has back-to-back hits with “The Visit” and “Split.”
READ MORE: Suspense-Filled ‘Split’ Is A Return To Form For M. Night Shyamalan [Review]
Once again, moviegoers have shown they only really like Vin Diesel when he’s fast and/or furious. “xXx: Return Of Xander Cage” was a sequel no one really asked for, and thus no one really showed up. With $20 million this weekend, while the film beat “xXx: State Of The Union,” it earned not even half of what “xXx” did in 2002. Diesel’s brand continues to be those big car-crash-go-boom movies, and that’s about it, no matter how hard he tries to launch new properties on his name.
The only other film going wide this weekend was “The Founder,” with the Ray Kroc biopic doing just okay on over 1,100 screens with $3.7 million. The Weinstein Company did a moderate push for the movie, and they got a moderate result. Sounds about right.
In box-office milestones, Disney will be popping the cork on the champagne, as not only has “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” crossed $1 billion worldwide. Additionally, it surpassed “The Dark Knight” and now is the 7th highest grossing film of all time in the U.S. Not counting inflation it’s the 2nd highest grossing film in the “Star Wars” franchise both domestically and worldwide. Additionally, “Moana” is now in the $500 million club. The mouse house simply can’t be stopped right now.
At the arthouse, the animated “The Red Turtle” took in a modest $21,811 on three screens, while in specialty release, the faith-based “The Resurrection Of Gavin Stone” collected $1.3 million on just under 900 screens — which is sadly more than the $1.1 million Martin Scorsese‘s “Silence” did in 1,500 cinemas.
1. “Split” — $40 million
2. “xXx: Return Of Xander Cage” — $20 million
3. “Hidden Figures” — $16.2 million ($84.2 mil.)
4. “Sing” — $9 million ($249.4 mil.)
5. “La La Land” — $8.3 million ($89.6 mil.)
6. “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” — $7.03 million ($512.2 mil.)
7. “Monster Trucks” — $7 million ($22.6 mil.)
8. “Patriots Day” — $6 million ($23.6 mil.)
9. “The Founder” — $3.75 million
10. “Sleepless” — $3.7 million ($15.1 mil.)