This Weekend @ The Box Office: 2017.Feb.12

It was the best weekend at the 2017 box office so far, led by WB's The LEGO Batman Movie along with fellow newcomers Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick: Chapter Two topping the box office in that order. But along with the new releases, five of the weekend's holdovers, especially Lion, held on extremely well, dropping 35% or less compared to last weekend. Overall the weekend top twelve came in just a fraction below our overall expectation of $180 million as the top twelve combined for an estimated $176.9 million.

At #1, WB's second film in their LEGO franchise, The LEGO Batman Movie, delivered an estimated $55.6 million, which is well below Mojo's forecast and even a bit below the $60 million the studio was expecting. However, opening day audiences gave the film a strong "A-" CinemaScore, which plays well with the strong critical reception the film received. Of that audience, 48% were males vs. 52% females and 48% were over the age of 25.

Looking ahead, outside of Lionsgate's acquisition of Rock Dog due in theaters in a couple weeks, there isn't a lot of competition in terms of animated films in the near future and the extended holiday weekend next weekend should ensure LEGO Batman holds on nicely. As for its overall domestic performance, after a $69 million opening, The LEGO Movie delivered a $257.7 million domestic total. A similar performance for LEGO Batman would mean a $207+ million run, which means we'll be keeping an eye out to see if this one can top $200 million.

Outside of North America, LEGO Batman brought in an estimated $37 million from 60 overseas markets for a combined, $92.6 worldwide opening. Some highlights include an estimated $9.3 million opening in the U.K. along with openings in Mexico ($2.6m), Germany ($2.3m), Russia ($2.2m), Brazil ($2m), France ($1.6m), Spain ($1.5m) and Italy ($1.2m). Looking ahead, the film opens in China on March 3 followed by openings in Australia (March 30) and Japan (April 1).

In second position is Universal's Fifty Shades Darker, which topped the box office on Friday and held on well over the weekend, finishing with a slightly stronger than expected $46.79 million from 3,710 theaters. Opening day audiences gave the film a "B+" CinemaScore and of that audience 70% was female vs. 30% male. The age breakdown saw 56% of the audience coming in under the age of 30 and 34% of the audience was Caucasian, 21% Hispanic and 14% African American.

Looking ahead, while this opening is nearly $40 million less than 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey, that was to be expected and how it plays this week with Valentine's Day on Tuesday and next weekend's four-day holiday weekend will be the true test as Fifty Shades of Grey dipped a massive 74% in its second weekend while Darker should play a little more traditionally. What does that mean? Well, proportionally, Fifty Shades Darker's opening compared to Fifty Shades of Grey is spot on when compared to the performance of Sex and the City to its sequel, which dropped 60% in its second weekend, ending its run just shy of $100 million, a number that would appear to be the bar to keep an eye domestically with $125 million looking like the ceiling for this release.

Overseas, Fifty Shades Darker delivered an estimated $100.1 million from 57 markets, the fourth largest international opening weekend ever for an R-rated film, behind Fifty Shades of Grey ($157.1m), Deadpool ($132.2m) and The Matrix Revolutions ($117.6m). Top markets include Germany ($11m), U.K. ($9.7m), France ($8.7m), Brazil ($7.5m), Russia ($6.7m), Italy ($6.5m), Australia ($5.9m), Spain ($5.6m) and Mexico ($2.7m). The film has four more territories in which it will be released, the last of which being Japan on June 23.

Third place belongs to Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter Two, which more than doubled its predecessor's opening with an estimated $30 million from 3,113 theaters. Heading into the weekend we were wondering if the R-rated actioner could manage to cross $30 million and with estimates it appears it just barely made it. Opening day audiences scored the film with an "A-" CinemaScore (the first received a "B") to go along with its 76 Metacritic score (the first received a 68). The opening day audience was 64% male vs. 36% female, identical to the first film.

Looking ahead, the question now is to wonder if John Wick 2 can approach $90 million domestically. The first film delivered a 2.98x multiplier, which would suggest a nearly $90 million domestic run for the sequel. Based on the CinemaScore, opening weekend and R-rating a run closer to $73 million would trend closer to the average, but don't be surprised if Wick 2 crosses $80 million if not a little bit higher.

Internationally, John Wick 2 debuted in 41 markets with an estimated $10.6 million of which Russia was the only major market release where it brought in an estimated $2.5 million, just $100,000 shy of the first John Wick feature in the country. Other openers included estimated results in the Philippines ($1.3m), Taiwan ($775k), Malaysia ($754k) and Hong Kong ($525k). The next major markets set to release later this week are Brazil and Germany on February 16 and the UK a day later.
Universal's Split finished in fourth, dropping just 35.4% for an estimated $9.3 million as its domestic cume climbs to $112.3 million. The film will soon pass The Village's $114.2 million domestic total to become M. Night Shyamalan's fourth largest domestic release.

Rounding out the top five is the continued strong performance of Hidden Figures with an estimated $8 million, dropping just 21.5% in its eighth week since its limited, Christmas Day debut. Its domestic cume now stands at an impressive $131.4 million, currently the highest grossing domestic release of the 2016 Best Picture nominees.

Elsewhere in the top ten, Lionsgate's La La Land grossed an estimated $5 million (-32.2%) for a total domestic cume of over $126 million. Additionally, the film brought in an estimated $11.5 million internationally bringing its worldwide total to an estimated $294.3 million through Sunday.

The best holdover in the top ten was the Weinstein's Lion, which saw a 9% bump compared to last weekend despite dropping 68 theaters. The Oscar contender delivered an estimated $4 million this weekend as its domestic cume now stands at $30.3 million since its limited bow 12 weeks ago.

Outside the top ten, other new openers include FIP's Jolly LLB 2, which brought in an estimated $780k from 173 theaters ($4,509 PTA); Magnolia's release of The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2017 brought in an estimated $660k from 184 theaters ($3,587 PTA); China Lion's Duckweed debuted in 27 theaters with an estimated $160k ($5,926 PTA); Fox Searchlight's A United Kingdom delivered an estimated $70k from four theaters ($17,500 PTA) and Sony Classics' Oscar contender Land of Mine debuted with an estimated $15,758 from three theaters ($5,253 PTA). Lastly, Oscilloscope's Kedi delivered the best per theater opening average of the year so far as it brought in an estimated $40,510 from one theater this weekend.

Additional highlights this weekend include the release of xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, which brought in a whopping $61.9 million in China this weekend from 6,600 locations. It's the largest opening for a Hollywood film in February and with $6 million it delivered the second largest IMAX February opening in China behind The Monkey King 2. The film's international cume now stands at an estimated $186.5 million for a worldwide total nearing $230 million, placing it second to 2002's xXx within the franchise. Return of Xander Cage will release in Japan on February 24.

This weekend also saw Illumination and Universal Pictures' Sing top $500 million worldwide as it brought in an estimated $7.5 million from 61 overseas markets this weekend bringing its overseas cume to $235.5 million. Combined with $265.3 million domestically the film's worldwide cume stands at $500.8 million.

Next weekend sees the release of Universal's The Great Wall into 3,200+ theaters on the heels of the film already grossing $224.6 million internationally. Other openers include the WB comedy Fist Fight into ~3,000 theaters and Fox's A Cure for Wellness into 2,700 theaters.

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