Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Hidden Figures’ and ‘La La Land’ Dominate the Holiday Weekend
After a neck-and-neck race last weekend, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has officially stepped aside to let Hidden Figures reign supreme. The crowd-pleasing drama about the black female mathematicians who assisted NASA in its early days topped the box office, leading a weekend that was otherwise all about films bursting out of limited release. The bulk of the new releases were not so fortunate.
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
1 | Hidden Figures | $20,450,000 (-10.3) | $6,223 | $54,833,000 |
2 | La La Land | $14,500,000 (+43.1) | $7,846 | $74,081,000 |
3 | Sing | $13,810,000 (-33.3) | $3,740 | $233,026,000 |
4 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | $13,759,000 (-37.6) | $4,351 | $498,850,000 |
5 | The Bye Bye Man | $13,378,000 | $6,026 | $13,378,000 |
6 | Patriots Day | $12,000,000 (+11,350.1) | $3,846 | $12,924,000 |
7 | Monster Trucks | $10,500,000 | $3,366 | $10,500,000 |
8 | Sleepless | $8,468,000 | $4,697 | $8,468,000 |
9 | Underworld: Blood Wars | $5,815,000 (-57.5) | $1,894 | $23,931,000 |
10 | Passengers | $5,625,000 (-36.2) | $2,299 | $90,004,000 |
Hidden Figures fell only 10% from last weekend, grossing $20 million for $54 million total after adding another 815 theaters to its count. Even if it stops making money altogether next week — which is highly unlikely — the film is already a hit and another piece of evidence in the “modestly budgeted movies about diverse groups tend to do well so pay attention Hollywood” argument.
In second place, Oscar frontrunner La La Land also benefited from an expansion, rising 43% and grossing $14 million to bring its current total to $74 million. At this rate, $100 million is the bare minimum and Damien Chazelle’s musical is only going to pack more theaters when it picks up a bunch of Oscar nominations.
Meanwhile, Sing continued to be a massive hit despite having never occupied the top spot of the charts, grossing $13 million for a $233 million total. $300 million is still likely at this point, but that will probably be the end of the line (although that’s certainly not a number to sneer at). It barely edged out Rogue One, which finally fell from the top spots, grossing $13 million in fourth place for a $498 million total. It should cross $500 million at the domestic box office at some point on Monday.
And it’s only here that we start to find the weekend’s new releases. The Bye Bye Man limped into fifth place with only $13 million, a rough number for a horror movie with scathing reviews that will probably plummet next weekend. The film is cheap enough that it may be fine in the long run, but it’s hard to call it even a minor success.
In sixth place, Patriots Day expanded to more theaters and only made $12 million, making this the second Peter Berg/Mark Wahlberg “based on very recent true events” drama to disappoint at the box office in just a few months. It barely edged out Monster Trucks, which opened to a poor $10 million (something everyone saw coming) and squeaked past Sleepless at a meager $8 million opening (something else that everyone saw coming).
The top 10 also ends on something of a down note, with Underworld: Blood Wars and Passengers continuing to under-perform. And it continued outside of the top 10, where Ben Affleck’s Live by Night bombed with $5 million in eleventh place.