Weekend box office: Lego Batman, Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick all battle for the top spot
It looks like releasing three big time movies in one shot was a nice boost to the weekend box office numbers. As expected, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE lead the way with over $50 million. It looks like it will come in around $15 million less than THE LEGO MOVIE, but I’m sure Warner Bros. is happy that an animated spin-off could open so well. The live action Batman franchise may be in trouble, but at least they have the LEGO version under control. The folks over at Lionsgate are also probably happy with themselves right now since JOHN WICK: CHAPTER TWO is flirting with a $30 million opening, which will double the take of the original film. Coupled with the rave reviews and Lionsgate has themselves a bonafide franchise on their hands. Then there’s FIFTY SHADES DARKER, which looks like it will take in $40 million less than it’s predecessor. At first, you might think that Universal would still be happy with that number, but keep in mind that the original film dropped like a rock in its second weekend, so if that happens again with FIFTY SHADES DARKER, the film could struggle to hit $100 million. It kind of feels like they have another Divergent series on their hands where the first film does well and then each subsequent film earns less and gets even worse.
Next week sees the release of THE GREAT WALL with Matt Damon. And yes, it seems like a cash grab for Damon and I can’t imagine it having much success domestically although I’m sure it will clean up internationally. The other new movie of the weekend is FIST FIGHT with Charlie Day and Ice Cube. At first, I’d say FIST FIGHT won’t do much because of the terrible trailers, but keep in mind there aren’t any comedies at the box office right now, so FIST FIGHT might do okay do to lack of competition. But my guess is that THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE will take the top spot and JOHN WICK: CHAPTER TWO will leapfrog to the second spot thanks to great word of mouth. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. The LEGO Batman Movie $54.5m
2. Fifty Shades Darker $48.3m
3. John Wick: Chapter 2 $29.6m
4. Split $9.2m
5. Hidden Figures $8.2m
6. A Dog’s Purpose $7.7m
7. Rings $5.3m
8. La La Land $5.1m
9. Lion $4m
10. The Space Between Us $1.7m
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