As people continued to flock to the two biggest hits of the holiday season, four new wide releases made their debuts in the final weekend of January, to very mixed results.
Surprising nobody, the #1 film of the week was Kung Fu Panda 3, which nevertheless had the lowest opening weekend yet for the franchise. As the first big animated film in a couple of months — because we’re going to pretend that Norm of the North never happened — it was the obvious choice for moviegoing families, and you can expect it to stick around in the Top 10 for a few weeks. And it did boast the largest opening weekend of all new January releases this year.
The Revenant held strong at #2, even after four weeks of wide release. It will soon pass Mad Max: Fury Road in total gross and become second only to The Martian among this year’s Best Picture nominees. It has also made more money than every other of director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s films combined. At #3 was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which extends its crazy all-time records with each passing day.
Accident-at-sea thriller The Finest Hours came it at #4, which is neither a disaster nor impressive. Much like its bland marketing and ambivalent reviews, everything about this film is completely unremarkable. Expect it to disappear soon — no one will even remember this one by the end of March.
At #5, Ride Along 2 hung in there, while all three of last week’s releases — The Boy, Dirty Grandpa, and The 5th Wave — each slid down two slots. After two weeks, all three continue to do nearly identical business. It’s kind of fascinating, actually.
The weekend’s third new release, the parody Fifty Shades of Black, did limited business at #9, but still far more than it deserved. I especially love the Critics Consensus line on Rotten Tomatoes, which states that the film “bears the unfortunate distinction of offering fewer laughs than the unintentionally funny film it's trying to lampoon.” Amazing.
Finally, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi rounded out the Top 10. It’ll leave theatres soon without having recouped its production budget.
Oh, and by the way — at the very last minute, Jane Got a Gun was given a last-minute wide release this week as well, bringing the total to four. It was an utter disaster, opening at #17, with barely more than $800,000 in ticket sales. That translates to a per-theatre average of only $691! This is shockingly bad. I actually really want to see this, but it wasn’t even released in Canada for some reason.
| TW | LW | Title | Gross (est.) | Cumulative (est.) | Weeks in Release |
| 1 | N | Kung Fu Panda 3 | $41,000,000 | $41,000,000 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | The Revenant | $12,400,000 | $138,171,368 | 6 |
| 3 | 2 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | $10,782,000 | $895,426,162 | 7 |
| 4 | N | The Finest Hours | $10,327,000 | $10,327,000 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | Ride Along 2 | $8,345,520 | $70,775,210 | 3 |
| 6 | 5 | The Boy | $7,894,000 | $21,527,916 | 2 |
| 7 | 4 | Dirty Grandpa | $7,575,000 | $22,821,010 | 2 |
| 8 | 6 | The 5th Wave | $7,000,000 | $20,188,149 | 2 |
| 9 | N | Fifty Shades of Black | $6,186,648 | $6,186,648 | 1 |
| 10 | 7 | 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi | $6,000,000 | $42,573,845 | 3 |
Source: Box Office Mojo
Meanwhile, in the world of limited releases, not much changed this week, so it doesn’t get its own post.
The 2016 Oscar Nominated Short Films program opened and did very solid business. Ip Man 3 and 45 Years both crossed $1M, while Anomalisa almost reached $2M. Go support independent cinema, friends.
| TW | Title | Gross | Cumulative | Weeks in Release |
| 1 | 2016 Oscar Nominated Short Films | $559,502 | $559,502 | 1 |
| 2 | Ip Man 3 | $526,338 | $1,643,671 | 2 |
| 3 | 45 Years | $473,729 | $1,260,217 | 6 |
| 4 | Anomalisa | $355,848 | $1,933,392 | 5 |
| 5 | The Lady in the Van | $300,387 | $721,680 | 8 |
Includes only titles that have never screened in wide release.
Source: Box Office Mojo
What did you see this weekend?
