Coming in at No. 2 is Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $14.3 million, followed by Ride Along 2 – last weekend’s chart topper – at No. 3 with $13 million, Dirty Grandpa at No. 4 with $11.5 million and The Boy at No. 5 with $11.3 million.
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Three new releases – “Dirty Grandpa” (#4, $11.5 million), “The Boy” (#5, $11.3 million) and “The 5th Wave” ($10.7 million) – occupy the next three slots.
In the film, De Niro plays a grandfather who tricks his grandson (Efron) into driving him to Florida just days before the young, uptight lawyer’s wedding. The Revenant should make approximately $15.5 million for the weekend for a running tally over $115 million. Her charge, however, turns out to be a life-size doll that the parents treat as a real boy, while the whereabouts of their son is unclear. “We think those groups will be wanting to get out of the house on Sunday to see the film”, he added. Theaters in Washington, DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia remain dark on Sunday as clean-up efforts begin, it is unclear whether New York City cinemas will be able to reopen. That’s a disappointing start, considering the $38 million movie was meant to launch a new YA film franchise.
Fittingly, the film that most flourished in the frigid winter weather was 20th Century Fox’s Oscar-nominated “Revenant”, which took in an estimated $16 million in its third week of wide release. Wave even failed to reach the levels of the Maze Runner and Divergent series. It scored a paltry 8% favorable critical rating on RottenTomatoes.com and a B audience grade on CinemaScore. But Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony, was upbeat about the result and said it came in “ahead of our expectations with the storm”. “But it was a great weekend for us on the weekend stage”.
The worldwide total for the latest installment in the blockbuster space saga stood at US$1.94 billion-third place overall behind “Avatar” and “Titanic”.
Among holdovers, Universal’s Ride Along 2 appeared to be hit hardest by Jonas.
Last week’s champion didn’t fare as well, and after failing to match the opening success of its predecessor, Ride Along 2 fell more than 60 percent in its second weekend, earning an estimated $12.3 million.
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Some food for thought, though: If “Star Wars” had made the best picture nominee list (like many think it should have) instead of, say, “The Martian”, 2016’s nominees list jumps to No. 2 all-time.
