While it’s only a matter of time before “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ends its reign at the top of the box office, that day nearly arrived this weekend. 20th Century Fox went wide with Leonardo DiCaprio‘s “The Revenant,” and the results were phenomenal. Hauling in $38 million dollars, it’s one of the best weekends ever for the actor at the box office, with only “Shutter Island,” “The Great Gatsby,” and “Inception” having better figures on their debut weekends. And the future looks bright for the picture. Barring a total shock, DiCaprio will get an Oscar nomination on Thursday, which should only help “The Revenant” in the coming weeks. Given the reported $135 million budget (which one can only imagine is higher with marketing and production overages factored in), Fox will be happy to have this one stick around as long as possible.
Speaking of sticking around, ‘The Force Awakens’ held to the pole position this week, but the real story was overseas. The movie finally opened in China, where the franchise in general doesn’t quite carry the same cultural weight as it does in the rest of the world. Nonetheless, ‘The Force Awakens’ scored the best Saturday opening ever with $33 million on its way to $52.6 million over two days. That now helps bring the worldwide haul for the movie to $1.73 billion dollars, and while it won’t touch the $2.7 billion record held by “Avatar,” $2 billion is certainly within reach. Basically, at the end of the day, it will make a ton of money.
“Daddy’s Home” continues to be a sleeper surprise hit for Paramount. The studio added 141 more theaters, and the picture held onto third place with $15 million, brining the total domestic haul to $116.3 million. It’s one of Will Ferrell‘s best performing movies ever, and will likely wind up as his third most successful picture behind “Elf” ($173 million domestic) and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” ($148.2 million), though if “Daddy’s Home” continues to leg out, it could threaten the latter.
But not every studio who expanded the run of their movie saw success. The Weinstein Company added over 460 cinemas for Quentin Tarantino‘s “The Hateful Eight,” only to see a brutal 59.6% drop as a result. The picture earned an unremarkable $6.3 million, and right now, its Oscar prospects look pretty dicey outside of Best Original Screenplay, so don’t expect too much more from this one. Meanwhile, Paramount added over 940 screens for “The Big Short” and saw a 30.5% drop with the picture, earning just slightly less than “The Hateful Eight.” The difference here is that Adam McKay‘s movie could surprise this week at the Oscar nominations in some big categories, which could put some momentum behind the movie. Moreover, the picture is already profitable, with the $28 million budgeted financial world dramedy already taking in $42.8 million domestic.
Lastly, there was one new movie in wide release, the Natalie Dormer-led horror “The Forest.” It took in a totally fine $13 million for fourth place, and given its $10 million budget, Gramercy is likely to make a small, tidy profit, which is pretty much all they could’ve hoped for.
1. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” — $41.6 million ($812 mil.)
2. “The Revenant” — $38 million ($39.5 mil.)
3. “Daddy’s Home” — $15 million ($116.3 mil.)
4. “The Forest” — $13 million
5. “Sisters” — $7.1 million ($74.8 mil.)
6. “The Hateful Eight” — $6.35 million ($41.4 mil.)
7. “The Big Short” — $6.3 million ($42.8 mil.)
8. “Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip” — $5.5 million ($75.6 mil.)
9. “Joy” — $4.5 million ($46.5 mil.)
10. “Concussion” — $3 million ($30.9 mil.)
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