Risen, the religious-themed film about the resurrection of Christ, brought in $11.8 million in its opening weekend, which is just about what was expected.
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Starring Joseph Fiennes (“Shakespeare in Love”), “Risen” tells the story of two Romans trying to find out what happened to the body of Jesus when his tomb is discovered empty after the Crucifixion. A24’s Puritan period thriller “The Witch” opened with $8.7 million.
The Ryan Reynolds-led big screen adaption of the Marvel Comics anti-hero not only pulled in $55 million for another solid week atop the weekend box office, but it also became the highest grossing domestic X-Men movie of all time. The foul-mouthed mutant earned almost four times as much as its closest competition, fellow Fox release Kung Fu Panda 3. It added $3 million to its now domestic record total of $921 million.
The film also holds an 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning 84 percent of all the top critics domestically gave this film a positive review.
In second place at the Korean box office was local crime comedy “A Violent Prosecutor”.
Rounding out the top 10 are Zoolander 2, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, The Revenant and Hail! With its budget unreleased, its estimated $8.7 million could still be quite impressive, considering the budgets of most horror films. On Friday, Deadpool earned $16.2 million, which was off a serious 66%; however, when compared with last weekend and removing Thursday preview numbers, that drop is more like 54%.
While Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia doesn’t open in North American theaters until March 4, the animated film is already a hit overseas. It’s the biggest opening weekend ever for a film released in February. “Race”, $7.3 million; 7. First and foremost it’s going to make some real money, since it cost A24 just $1 million to buy the rights along with DirecTV when the film came out out of the Sundance Film Festival previous year. Directed by Stephen Hopkins, the Jesse Owens biopic stars Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, Carice van Houten, Shanice Banton and William Hurt.
The Ryan Reynolds-starring Fox release, which grossed $180 million in its first week, is far and away the highest earner at the multiplex this weekend.
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Over the next month and a half, Deadpool goes up against Gods of Egypt (Feb. 29), London Has Fallen (Mar. 4), 10 Cloverfield Lane (Mar. 11), The Divergent Series: Allegiant (Mar. 18) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Mar. 25).
