Box Office: Split Dominates, Hidden Figures Stays Strong
The big winner at hte box office this weekend was M Night Shyamalan's split personality thriller Split starring James McAvoy, Betty Buckley (!!!) and The Witch's Anya-Taylor Joy. Hidden Figures continued to show signs of a hefty box office tally to come with another very low percentage drop and Sing has become the biggest grossing movie of all time that never hit #1 at the box office, surpassing the previous record holder My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Martin Scorsese's Silence has gone wide but is still struggling to find takers and The Founder, after a long delayed release, opened as well to $3+ million. Meanwhile 20th Century Women added 600+ theaters and is finally ready for your eyeballs and you MUST see it. It's marvelous. Silence added over 800 screens but to little traction from moviegoers.
TOP WIDE
(over 800 screens)
01 Split $40.1 NEW
02 xXx: Return of Xander Cage $20 NEW
03 Hidden Figures $16.2 (cum. $84.2) Podcast
04 Sing $9 (cum. $249.3)
05 La La Land $8.3 (cum. $89.6) Reviewish, Demy Influence, and How Rare It Is!
TOP LIMITED
(under 800 screens - excluding previously wide)
01 Lion $1.8 (cum. $16.3) 575 screens Review and Nicole
02 20th Century Women $1.4 (cum. $2.3) 650 screens Podcast, Top Ten, Billy Crudup, First Impressions
03 Moonlight $633K (cum. $15.8) 489 screens Review,Podcast, and Supporting
04 Jackie $365K (cum. $11.2) 239 screens Review and Interview
05 Paterson $123K (cum. $529K) 38 screens Review
What did you see this weekend?
Reader Comments (26)
"Split" was a return to form for Shyamalan, in that the ending made me kind of furious. I think there's enough good along the way to still recommend it, but with reservations.
I saw Live By Night (snooze) and YAS 20th Century Women. So good!
Speaking of box office, did you hear "Lion" had the biggest opening weekend ever for an Australian independent film in Australia? Among all Australian productions it's the 5th biggest opening of all time down under, with now 3/5 of them being Queen Kidman releases.
Kidman being a BO hit is so early 00's.
20th Century Women was AMAZING! The performances are so lived in, the voice over is some of the best in movie history, the music is fantastic and its laugh out loud funny throughout. WHAT A MOVIE!!!!
I saw Hidden Figures. Despite being super conventional, I cried a couple of times. Octavia does so much with so little and Kiki is fantastic. Taraji struggles a bit more because she's miscast, but she has good moments (the proposal).
Aso saw Toni Erdmann. How is it doing so well with awards? It's so bizarre! Hüller gives a great performance. Another great multidimensional female character in an already crowded year.
Split kind of lived up to its title. It tends to drag on with its ending not having much payoff. But James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy were fantastic!
Also, despite its aimless nature, I was pretty invested in 20th Century Women. I loved the performances by the three women. Especially Greta Gerwig.
No time for movies this weekend; just a couple of episodes of Sneaky Pete, which I quite liked. Yes! Margo Martindale is back on my TV!
Taraji's volcanic "lack of bathrooms" scene was INCREDIBLE. My how she's come a long way since Benjamin Button.
Midnight Special, Louder than Bombs, 20th Century Women, The Club, Hidden Figures, and La La Land (2nd time). T'was an interesting weekend.
I saw the girl with all the gifts and christine
They were ok
20th Century Women.
Of course it's nominated for a SAG ensemble! What a skilled and delightful cast! I had to laugh at their discussion about how lack of skill makes something real and authentic, when the intense skills of the cast made the movie pop with aliveness, and recognition and unsettling moments.
And how come there's not enough talk about Mike Mills as a director? Oh yeah, because the movie opened too late.
Nicole is negative box office draw in the U.S.
Silicon Valley catch up for the laughs. Very funny show.
20th Century Women was everything I hoped it would be. Benning is divine.
But the studio should have opened this way sooner, such a shame in terms of awards.
However it is a film that will stand the test of time. Lots of laughter in the cinema, and my nephew thanked me for taking him to a film he'd never heard of or would have gone to otherwise.
Needs word of mouth.
" Hidden Figures" which is very good crowd pleasing studio picture - the three leads are amazing - but there was also strong supporting work from Kevin Costner. And I loved Glenn Powell who plays John Glenn- get this man a leading role now
I saw Sing which I liked more than I probably should as it's a very conventional story. It has great songs and performances, and I have to admit I was actually emotional at times. I can only compare to Finding Dory from earlier in the year which it blows out of the water by comparison.
I also saw Hidden Figures which for a movie about NASA and the space program and the racial climate of the 60's is pretty well told, but I found it a little too boring. It's the type of sterile race drama they'll be soon showing in high schools.
Saw Lion as it finally opened in Australia (I missed all the media screenings due to work). Proud to be there on opening weekend for the fifth biggest Australian opening weekend of all time (the other four? two Baz Luhrmann and two George Miller; and as Theis said, Kidman has been in two of those).
I want to know which incompetent at Fox Searchlight had a hard time selling a spectacularly reviewed Jackie Kennedy biopic to the American public...in an election year. Who knew it'd be lagging $30 million behind Carol (less broad/accessible) and $25 million behind My Week With Marilyn (less excellent).
Jackie could have been a cheap, shallow, poorly-acted, ill-conceived mess and I still would have expected it to do well at the box office. And it's down 100 screens from your last roundup, so I don't expect it will go any wider.
I caught up with Taboo, the Tom Hardy BBC drama. It's pretty solid so far, the premise is interesting and quite original. 3 episodes in and there are a lot of scenes of Tom Hardy reading documents by candlelight in just a night shirt. The production design is incredible, and is what's keeping me watching. I'd like more of the daft hallucination bits.
Perhaps Tom could lighten up a bit and do a rom com next though?
Like This Means War? No thanks. Probably why he's in no rush to revisit the genre.
Lol @PaulOutlaw very true!
He's just been very brooding and intense for a while now though. I feel like he's in danger of getting a bit same'y. Would like to see him lighten up a bit, that's all.
Wow, Hidden Figures is going to outgross La La Land. Amazing.
20th Century Women - so warm, such a beautiful ensemble, lovely direction. Loved it.
I saw Jackie for the fifth time and 20th Century Women for the first.
20th Century Women caught me in its warm embrace and rocked me to cinematic bliss. Even in this extraordinary year, Bening should win the Oscar.
Saw 20th Century Women and loved it. The cast (Bening!), the voiceover, the music, the editing, the jumps in time - it all just elevated this lived-in, natural, slice-of-life story into something special.
Also finished The OA on Netflix. Anyone else watch it? Any thoughts? I haven't seen any of Brit Marling's films but I do want to see The East.
Saw LION. Slower and darker than I expected, and did not integrate supporting characters (the adopted brother, the girlfriend) into the narrative as smoothly as I'd have liked. Even Nicole's character felt underdeveloped. But it did make me cry without feeling overly manipulated, so mission accomplished? And Dev Patel was excellent. Definitely a lead, though, not supporting!