Weekend Wrap-Up: Ride Along Rides the Wave to the Top with $41.01 Million
January 20, 2016
As anticipated, Ride Along 2 earned first place over the long weekend earning more than it cost to make in just four days. The other two wide releases were less successful. Despite costing more to make, 13 Hours earned less than half Ride Along 2 opened with, while the less said about Norm of the North, the better. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was pushed into third place over the three-day weekend, but it rose to first place on the daily chart on Monday. It is not done yet. The overall, the three-day weekend was up 4.2% from last weekend; however, it was down 18% from last year. This is not surprising, as this weekend last year, American Sniper set the record for biggest January weekend. Year-to-date, 2016 has pulled in $693 million, giving 2016 an early lead over 2015. That lead was cut to 5.9% or $39 million and will likely be cut further next weekend. Hopefully it won't be entirely gone.
Ride Along 2 opened in first place with $35.24 million / $41.01 million over the three-date / four-day weekend. By comparison, the first Ride Along earned $41.52 million during its three-day weekend and $48.63 million over four days. Likewise, this film is earning weaker reviews, so the film will likely earn shorter legs. That said, $100 million is still the target for this movie.
The Revenant remained in second place with $31.80 million / $37.53 million over the three-day / four-day weekend. Its running tally rose to $95.70 million, which, coincidentally, is the second of three budgets the movie had. (It started at $65 million, went over-budget to $95 million, before finally finishing at $135 million.) On the downside, I'm already starting to see some blowback and some are saying it is overrated. These people are saying that the people are praising the film not for the end result, but for how difficult the process was. If this feeling grows, it could cost the movie a few Oscars.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens held on a little better than anticipated with $26.34 million / $33.02 million for a total of $858.95 million. The film could still reach $900 million domestically, but it will be very close.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi struggled with $16.19 million / $19.22 million. The film's four-day box office was actually lower than Pain and Gain. However, perhaps this result shouldn't be a surprise. After all, Michael Bay hasn't directed a $100 million hit that wasn't part of the Transformer franchise since 2003. This movie only cost $50 million to make, but unless it finds an audience internationally (which is doubtful) it won't break even any time soon.
Daddy's Home earned $9.55 million / $11.90 million over the weekend for a total of $131.86 million after 25 days of release. It remains on pace to reach $150 million, barely.
Norm of the North was next with an opening of $6.84 million / $9.38 million. Additionally, the film still has no positive reviews, so it will likely disappear shortly and will be forgotten by the time it reaches the home market.
The only film in the sophomore class to not reach the top five was The Forest, which earned sixth place with $5.98 million / $6.98 million over the weekend for a total of $22.31 million. This is twice what it cost to make, so it has covered all of its production budget. Now it just needs to cover its advertising budget. Likely, it cost more to advertise, so it will have to wait till the home market to break even. Then again, this is much better than most January movies manage to do.
- Ride Along 2 Comparisons
- 13 Hours Comparisons
- Norm of the North Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Norm of the North, Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens, Ride Along 2, The Forest, The Revenant, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Daddy’s Home, Transformers, Michael Bay