Weekend Box Office: Claws Out

Fox took a risk by giving an R-rating to the latest installment of the ‘X-Men’ universe, but it totally paid off. Meanwhile Lionsgate’s faith-based drama played well, but couldn’t beat the sophomore weekend of Jordan Peele’s horror movie.

Hats off to Fox, director James Mangold and actors Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart for pulling it off with ‘Logan‘. This movie is to head stabs what ‘John Wick’ is to head shots… and audiences ate it up. Although this is said to be Jackman’s final outing as the clawed anti-hero, considering how strongly it debuted, I imagine it won’t be long before Fox brings the character back in one form another. From 4,071 screens (enough to make it the widest opening ever for an R-rated picture), ‘Logan’ earned a very impressive $85.3 million. That number, which is the highest opening of 2017 so far, is nearly $20 million more than the debut of last year’s PG-13 ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘. From 81 international markets, the movie grossed $152.5 million. With a $97 million budget and a $237.8 million worldwide opening, ‘Logan’ already nears profitability after just three days.

The opening of last week’s smash hit ‘Get Out‘ dropped jaws. Weekend #2 did the same. The film saw a mere 22% drop-off – which is unheard-of with R-rated horror movies – and drew a second place finish with $26.1 million. Produced on a budget of $4.5 million, its domestic ten-day total us up to a whopping $75.9 million. ‘Get Out’ has yet to open overseas.

While the returns for faith-based movies have dwindled over the past several releases, Lionsgate’s ‘The Shack‘ defied the downward trend and landed in third place. Despite terrible reviews, the religious drama pull $16.1 million from 2,888 locations. With a $20 million price tag, it still has a way to go, but its yet-to-start international release ought to help with that.

Four-weeek-old ‘The Lego Batman Movie‘ fell 39% week-over-week and finished in fourth place. Its $11.6 million weekend brought its domestic earnings up to $148.6 million. With $108.2 million in international ticket sales, WB’s $80 million kids’ movie has drawn $256.8 million worldwide.

Zoey Deutch’s ‘Before I Fall‘ rounded out the Top 5. From 2,346 screens, it drew $4.9 million, which is low. However, considering the film’s tiny $5 million budget, even if it doesn’t turn a dollar at the box office, it will certainly get there shortly after it become available for home viewing.

The wide release of the Duplass Brothers’ latest comedy, ‘Table 19‘, was a bit ambitious for the eclectic filmmakers. From 868 screens, it made $1.5 million and a wee per-screen average of $1,815.

Top 10:

1. ‘Logan’ (Fox) – $85,300,000

2. ‘Get Out’ (Universal) – $26,110,695

3. ‘The Shack’ (Lionsgate) – $16,100,000

4. ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ (Warner Bros.) – $11,650,000

5. ‘Before I Fall’ (Open Road) – $4,948,538

6. ‘John Wick: Chapter Two’ (Summit) – $4,725,000

7. ‘Hidden Figures’ (Fox) – $3,825,000

8. ‘The Great Wall’ (Universal) – $3,507,120

9. ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ (Universal) – $3,484,770

10. ‘La La Land’ (Summit) – $2,975,000

3 comments

    • I’m not sure all the in-jokes translate as well for non-English speaking countries. The LEGO movie didn’t exactly set the foreign box office on fire, either (it made less than the domestic number).

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