The folks over at 20th Century Fox must be really happy right about now considering that the number one movies in America for the past six weeks have all belonged to them. The Revenant, Kung Fu Panda 3 and now Deadpool, which is going through its third week at the top of the box office with a terrific $31.5 million sum this go-around, a 43% decline from last weekend. Deadpool has now taken in $285 million domestically, and will become the first movie of 2016 to gross $300 million (and the first non-Star Wars movie to cross that mark since Minions) likely by this Friday.
In a very very very very very distant second place was Gods Of Egypt, scoring a meager $14 million debut. In the realm of live-action fantasy movies (not taking inflation into account), this debut puts it just ahead of the opening weekend of the Steven Spielberg effort Hook and just below the bow of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Look, no one thought Gods Of Egypt was gonna be a gangbusters hit thanks to its nonsensical marketing campaign (posters and banners typically just showed off robots fighting each other without any live-action actors, making Gods Of Egypt look like some sort of woebegone video game) and the understandably controversial casting of white people in the roles of ancient Egyptians.
Wait, I take that back, Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment must have thought it’d be a huge box office smash since they spent $140 million on it. Apparently, thanks to selling off the film to foreign distributors, they’re only on the hook for $12 million for the film itself (does that sound shady to anyone else?), though this dismal gross domestically, and even the early underwhelming numbers rolling in from overseas, means they likely won’t see much profit on the film and it also ensures there won’t 2 Gods 2 Egypt in our future.
Kung Fu Panda 3 came in third place in its fifth week of release with a strong $9 million gross. The newest Po adventure has now taken in $128.4 million. In fourth place was fellow holdover Risen, which lost 40% in its second frame for a $7 million gross and a total domestic cume of $22.7 million, making it currently the fifteenth biggest Christian movie of all-time, just behind the $25 million gross of Jonah: A Veggietales Movie.
Rounding out the top five was another newbie, Eddie The Eagle, which only grossed $6.3 million over the weekend. Considering the real world figure the film is centered on isn’t quite as famous here in America and that the film didn’t star a huge Chris Pratt level A-lister as the titular lead, it’s not shocking this one failed to score gold (sorry!) at the box office. While this one got solid reviews and a great A CinemaScore from audiences, its tiny opening weekend and the large amount of new releases coming around the corner ensures Eddie The Eagle won’t be soaring at the box office (sorry again!) for very long.
Yet another newcomer could be found just outside of the top five, Triple 9, which debuted to a middling $6.1 million. This ensemble crime drama just didn’t garner good enough reviews to stand out in the marketplace, and the same goes for its more generic marketing campaign, which didn’t cement a notable morally right audience POV into this world of crime and corruption in the TV ads or trailers.
Last weekend’s new release, The VVitch, came in eighth place this time around, but had a surprisingly second-weekend solid dip for a horror movie, losing only 43% for an $5 million haul this weekend, taking its 10-day domestic haul to $16.6 million. Looks like this one’s going to easily get over $20 million in its domestic run, not bad at all for this smaller scale creepy feature. And rounding out the top ten was The Revenant, which got a boost from it being a major contender at the Oscars this weekend by dropping only 2% this weekend for a $3.8 million haul in its eighth weekend of wide release. This new Leonardo DiCaprio film has now taken in $170.5 million and will also cross $400 million worldwide within the next few days.
The top 12 this weekend grossed $97.4 million, which is up 6% from the same weekend last year when the Will Smith/Margot Robbie vehicle Focus was the number one film at the box office.
