Box Office: Wolverine slays while Get Out stays...

I dont know where this photo is from but I love itDespite the R rating, or perhaps because of it, Logan opened much stronger than its 2013 predecessor The Wolverine (which eventually racked up $414 million globally). Logan will easily become the highest grossing Wolverine film by the end of its run thanks to what will surely be strong word of mouth... something this particular solo franchise has never experienced.

In other box office news: Jordan Peele's hot button horror film Get Out held spectacularly well, dropping only 21%; Best Foreign Language Film winner The Salesman expanded to over 100 theaters; and most importantly Best Picture winner Moonlight returned to wide release in theaters even as it was just released on DVD / BluRay adding another $2.5 million to its gross. This weekend it became A24's second biggest hit in the US by passing The Witch (still their biggest hit globally though). Moonlight will end its run as the lowest grosser among the 2016 Best Picture nominees but $25 million isn't too shabby at all for a serious black gay art film with no bankable stars. In fact it's kind of a miracle. It just needs $60,000 more in ticket sales this week to beat Ex Machina and become A24's biggest US hit.

TOP WIDE 
01 Logan $85.3 NEW Reviewed
02 Get Out $26.1 (cum. $75.9) Reviewed
03 The Shack $16.1 NEW 
04 The Lego Batman Movie $11.6 (cum. $148.6) 
05 Before I Fall $4.9 NEW

TOP LIMITED 
01 A United Kingdom $625K (cum. $1.8) 271 theaters
02 The Salesman $266K (cum. $1.8) Review, Interview 115 theaters
03 Kedi $234K (cum. $577K) Reviewed 13 theaters
04 Bitter Harvest $94K (cum. $392K) 75 theaters
05 Everybody Loves Somebody $65K (cum. $1.8) 60 theaters

Logan didn't have a post-credit scene due to the nature of its actual content but moviegoers were treated to this amusing Deadpool 2 teaser above with a cameo from Stan Lee and a full moon from game Ryan Reynolds, still loving his role as the merc with a mouth

What did you see this weekend?

The odd proposition of The Great Wall didn't excite moviegoers in the States -- Matt Damon leading historical fantasy fiction about China's great wall and monstersWhaaa?-- but its huge price tag (150 million budget) doesn't mean it will lose big since it's already made over 200 million overseas. Generally speaking director Zhang Yimou knows how to wondrous spectacle movies but this movies reviews leave something to be desired. Nevertheless it was a relatively quiet weekend with not much changing as the maintream titles played steadily and the Oscar titles are beginning to decline as the conversation around the Oscars nears its end point.

But did anyone see I Am Not Your Negro's huge box office gross coming? You never can tell with documentaries which ones will convince people to buy tickets en masse. In specialty theaters the Mexican rom-com Everybody Loves Somebody also opened to strong numbers.

the great Zhang Yimou directing... Matt Damon in The Great Wall?

TOP WIDE 
01 Lego Batman Movie $34.2 (cum. $98.7)
02 Fifty Shades Darker $20.9 (cum. $89.6)
03 The Great Wall $18 NEW 
04 John Wick Chapter Two $16.5 (cum. $58.6) 
05 Fist Fight $12 NEW

TOP LIMITED 
01 Everybody Loves Somebody $1 NEW 
02 I Am Not Your Negro $975K (cum. $3.2) Review, the nominated docs
03 Oscar Nominated Shorts $600K (cum. $1.6) Doc Shorts Ranked
04 Jolly Lib 2 $330K (cum. $1.3)
05 A United Kingdom $270K (cum. $360K)

Box Office: Street Cats, Kinky Sex, Lego Superheroes

This weekend's box office charts are deceiving in their rankings. Lego Batman and the Fifty Shades sequels topped the weekend but both opened well below their predecessors while #3 was a huge success. John Wick's second outing doubled its original's opening weekend gross suggesting that the fanbase grew exponentially once the 'first chapter' was available for home viewing. This kind of thing we used to see far more of in the early days of VHS but now in the age of franchises, generally you don't see that kind of word-of-mouth "discovery" growth. You're either a behemoth or you're not. 

Three more items of note that don't really show in these charts...

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First you watch it. Then you are short $15

Hidden Figures finally lept-frog La La Land this weekend at the domestic box office. With budgets around 25-30 million each they're both going to be very very profitable films for their studios and stars. They remain the biggest hits among the major Oscar nominees but Lion also had reason to celebrate this weekend. It finally went wide and landed in the top ten. But, since is the US box office, violent horror-tinged movies are seemingly always at the top of the charts and the weekend belonged to Split and the latest installment of the Ring franchise, inventively titled Rings this time. Its missing its original star Naomi Watts but the star of all horror franchises is actually the villain so "Samara" is back to kill people who watch her experimental art film shorts.

Samara is PISSED that Hidden Figures is more popular than Hacksaw Ridge and she wants you to suffer as she has!

TOP TEN 
01 Split $14.5 (cum. $98.7) 
02 Rings $13 NEW 
03 A Dog's Purpose $10.8 (cum. $32.9) Podcast
04 Hidden Figures $10.1 (cum. $119.4)  Podcast
05 La La Land $7.4 (cum. $118.3) on the Costumes, Reviewish, and How Rare It Is!
06 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter $4.5 (cum. $21.8) on the franchise  
07 Sing $4 (cum. $262.9)
08 Lion $4 (cum. $24.7) a cocktail with Nicole, Podcast, Review
09 The Space Between Us $3.8 NEW
10 xXx: The Return of Xander Cage $3.7 (cum. $40) 

 What did you see this weekend? 

Box Office Boom for Best Pictures...

Hidden Figures and La La Land both crossed the $100 million mark this weekend.

This weekend saw three Best Picture nominees re-expanding (Moonlight, Fences, Arrival) to capitalize on their Oscar nominations each adding a million plus to their already successful grosses. Arrival is so close to $100 million now ($97.3) but it will be still be a stretch to hit that milestone with its Blu-Ray release just two weeks away. In fact every Best Picture nominee that's still in theaters experienced a boost at the box office this weekend except Hidden Figures (which was already roaring) but that drama's neglible 11% drop continues to suggest a very long run to come.

The shadow side of this equation? That's what's happening to the prestige pictures that weren't nominated...

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