Weekend Box Office: Pool Party

After a $132.4 million opening last weekend, it was a given that ‘Deadpool’ would retain the top spot on the box office charts. Despite slipping 59% week-over-week, the movie is still bringing in the dough and breaking records.

Domestically, ‘Deadpool‘ added $55 million to its run this weekend and crossed the $200 million milestone on Saturday. Hitting that mark within nine days makes it the fastest R-rated movie to ever do so. With $235.3 million in the North American bank, it’s the sixth highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, and it will only keep climbing. Another $85 million came in from overseas ticket sales, bringing the mercenary’s international total up to $256.5 million. Worldwide, ‘Deadpool’ has grossed $491.8 million.

The three new nationwide releases (each of which opened on more than 2,000 screens) not only couldn’t topple ‘Deadpool’, they also couldn’t oust ‘Kung Fu Panda 3‘ out of second place. Declining just 37% in attendance, the four-week-old animated family flick added $12.5 million to its domestic total, which now sits at $117.1 million. Overseas, ‘Panda 3’ has collected $162.6 million, giving it a worldwide total of $279.7 million. Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ got an early international start ahead of North America and is already doing quite well, so if that’s any indicator of the impact it’ll have domestically, then ‘Panda 3’ will likely only thrive for another two weeks.

The best any of the new releases could do was a third-place debut. Weeks ahead of Easter, Sony’s Biblical tale ‘Risen‘ opened to so-so numbers. From nearly 3,000 locations, the Christian resurrection drama earned $11.8 million. The $20 million film has yet to open internationally, but is expected to perform well overseas and remain consistent domestically while it doesn’t have any other faith-based competition.

After a year of earning festival buzz, A24 drew its strongest domestic opening to date with ‘The Witch‘. The 17th Century horror movie rolled out to 2,000 screens and saw $8.6 million in return. Acquired for just $1 million and marketed with a minimal campaign, its fourth-place opening is already successful.

How to Be Single‘ rounded out the Top 5 with $8.2 million. In its second week, the $38 million comedy fell 54% and earned a notably low $2,449 per-screen average. Its $31.7 million domestic total and $24.1 million from overseas add up to $55.8 million to date worldwide.

The Jesse Owens bio-pic ‘Race‘ stumbled at the starting line and finished in sixth place. From just under 2,400 locations, the Focus Features film underperformed with $7.2 million and a low $3,071 per-screen average. ‘Race’ has yet to join the overseas competition.

Top 10:

1. ‘Deadpool’ (Fox) – $55,000,000

2. ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ (Fox) – $12,500,000

3. ‘Risen’ (Sony) – $11,800,000

4. ‘The Witch’ (A24) – $8,685,270

5. ‘How to Be Single’ (WB) – $8,220,000

6. ‘Race’ (Focus) – $7,275,000

7. ‘Zoolander 2’ (Paramount) – $5,500,000

8. ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (Buena Vista) – $3,836,000

9. ‘The Revenant’ (Fox) – $3,800,000

10. ‘Hail, Caesar!’ (Universal) – $2,640,000

1 comment

  1. William Henley

    I don’t think Risen was advertised well. I hadn’t even heard of it until my buddy said “Do you want to go see it with me?”. It was showing in one of the larger auditoriums (the largest other than their premiere screen) at my local theater, and the 7pm Friday night showing for a religious movie in DFW on opening weekend only saw the auditorium 1/10th full (it should have been packed).

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