Box Office Report: Dogs & Zombies Are Not Enough For Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ Personalities at B…

Here’s your estimated 3-day box office returns (new releases bolded):

1. Split – $26.2 million ($77.9 million total)

2. A Dog’s Purpose – $18.3 million ($18.3 million total)

3. Hidden Figures – $14.0 million ($104.0 million total)

4. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter – $13.8 million ($238.3 million total)

5. La La Land – $12.9 million ($106.5 million total)

6. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage – $8.2 million ($33.4 million total)

7. Sing – $6.2 million ($257.4 million total)

8. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – $5.1 million ($520.0 million total)

9. Monster Trucks – $4.1 million ($28.1 million total)

10. Gold – $3.4 million ($3.4 million total)

The Big Stories

For the first time in years, moviegoers haven’t gone on a mass exodus from M. Night Shyamalan’s grasp. Since 2004’s The Village, the director once dubbed the new Spielberg has seen his audiences drop between 54.5%-67.5% in their second weekend. For Split, his biggest opening since The Last Airbender, the word-of-mouth has held better than any film since his 1999 breakthrough, The Sixth Sense. That’s the difference between 3.4% and an estimated 34% for Split, but that’s a big deal for him, Blumhouse Productions and Universal. Though the studio has had some controversy leading into this weekend they look to still be coming ahead. But can the same be said for the franchise finally ending its 15-year run. My GOD has it been that long?

Final Justice for the Final Chapter

It was 2002 when Screen Gems launched the Resident Evil film series. Based on the popular video game series (#7 of which was just released this week), the Milla Jovovich-led franchise was started by Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Alien vs. Predator, Death Race) and here he finishes with his fourth film of the lot. Though none of these films have been financial juggernauts in the U.S. (the fourth film, Afterlife, was the highest domestic grosser at $60.1 million) the growth from the international market have demanded this season continue even as the budgets expanded beyond the $60 million mark. The studio is certainly counting on its overseas fans this time.

Until this weekend the best start for the series was Afterlife’s $26.6 million, with every sequel surpassing $20 million after the original’s $17.7 million beginning. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter has dropped to $12.6 million, which is just ahead of Anderson’s Death Race remake and Pompeii.

Now if you thought the multiples on Shyamalan’s films have been bad, here is the W.S. Anderson list.

Mortal Kombat (3.02), Death Race (2.87), Event Horizon (2.80), The Three Musketeers 2011 (2.34), Soldier (2.263), Resident Evil (2.265), Resident Evil: Afterlife (2.25), Pompeii (2.24), Alien vs. Predator (2.09), Resident Evil: Retribution (2.01)

That is an average of just 2.41 which is still better than the Resident Evil’s series average of 2.17. That is going to put The Final Chapter’s gross somewhere between $29.9 & $33.2 million in the U.S. for the lowest grossing in the series. On the bright side for Screen Gems is that the film has gotten off to a $64 million start overseas so far. It may not reach the $296 million worldwide gross of Afterlife or the $240 million of the fifth film, Retribution may only need about another $57 million to make this a profitable swan song.

A PETA’S Purpose

Whether you saw the video or not, it is possible you heard of the existence of the controversial on-set treatment of one of the animals associated with Lasse Hallstrom’s A Dog’s Purpose. PETA was outraged, as was anyone who did see the video. Whether or not you saw both producer Gavin Polone’s apology and contextual explanation of the edited video is another matter. In this day and age context may not matter to anyone already visually stimulated with what one side wants you to see and hear, but did it really make a difference at the box office this weekend?

Universal’s A Dog’s Purpose, tinged with the recent outrage, still managed to gross $18 million over the weekend. Does that strike anyone as still pretty darn good? It might not be Marley & Me numbers ($36.3 million opening) but it is still based on a book that spent 49 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list. That gives it an edge over doggie star vehicles like Good Boy! ($13.1 million), 2015’s Max ($12.1 million) and even Marmaduke ($11.5 million). The film has nearly reached its production budget of $22 million already and although it still may need another $50 million or more to break even (its made just $5 million internationally so far) Universal is already doing just fine in 2017.

Tales of the Top Ten

We come full circle back to M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. The film cost $9 million to make. It made $14.6 million in its first day of release and has now surpassed $76 million in the U.S. It is unfathomable that this will not become the fifth $100 million grosser of his career. Technically it would also become just the fifth pure January release to ever reach the milestone. (12 of the current 17 listed at Box Office Mojo were expansions from December.) That means Split would join Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Taken, Kung Fu Panda 3 and Ride Along. (The special edition of Star Wars was the other title.)

The next small budget/big hit in the Top Ten is Fox’s Hidden Figures. The $25 million production surpassed (as expected) $104 million this weekend. It received the expected nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Picture this week (though no others) making it feel more like the flavor-of-the-month more than a truly deserving top nominee, but Fox has nothing to feel bad about. Got the nominations. More importantly the money.

Lionsgate, on the other hand, is going to get the money, then also get the power of winning a whole bunch of La La Land’s 14 nominations. It also surpassed $100 million this weekend after finally rocketing into over 3,100 theaters and rising over 42% from last weekend.

The studio continuing to not feel the love is Paramount. Yes they got eight Oscar nominations for the studio’s only profitable film since 10 Cloverfield Lane last March. Arrival made another $1.4 million this weekend in re-release in the hopes of surpassing $100 million itself. (It has just passed $97 million.)

But xXx: The Return of Xander Cage is looking like its latest high-profile disappointment. A 59% drop from opening weekend means that $50 million in the U.S. is likely a pipe dream. It’s $55 million internationally so far seems better than it actually is considering the original only did $135 million outside our country. This is another loser for the studio coming on top of Monster Trucks, which looks to be their biggest bomb since 2005’s Sahara. Seeing as how audiences have been rejecting sequels of late this does not bode well for upcoming releases like Rings, World War Z 2 and their new Friday the 13^th reboot.

Back to the positives we go with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story still hanging around in hopes of surpassing The Dark Knight on the all-time chart. Over $520 million in the states and $1.03 billion worldwide, these are sequels, prequels, sidequels that nobody need worry about. Seeing as how Universal and Illumination have announced their plans for not just a Minions 2 but a Sing 2 as well, the money train is alive and well for the animation studio. Sing is over $257 million ($463 million worldwide) and seems headed for somewhere around $275 million, which would put it in the Top 15 animated grossers of all-time.

Rounding out the Top Ten this week is another nail in the Weinstein Coffin. Gold grabbed $3.4 million from moviegoers this weekend. That is slightly better than last week’s similiarly-buried The Founder, which has only made $7 million to date. Either film making $10 million might be the closest thing to a moral victory at this point for the true stories starring Matthew McConaughey and Michael Keaton. The best thing that can be said about the Weinstein Co. is that they still have enough influence in the awards race to get a film like Lion nominated for six Oscars. Despite never reaching the top ten (yet), this other true story with nominees Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman has made nearly $20 million to date. That is more than fellow multi-Oscar nominees Moonlight and Jackie and it is headed for Hell or High Water’s $27 million next. The $12 million production has grossed over $32 million worldwide and could very well be one of its last, if not the last, profits the studio makes.

– Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on WGN Radio with Nick Digilio as well as on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.

[box office figures via Box Office Mojo]

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