By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Muscular Kung Fu Panda 3 flexed its pecs for a second weekend at the top of the charts with an estimated $21.2 million. The session featured a trio of national bows, with openings that ranged from good to … Slotting second was Hollywood spoof Hail, Caesar! with an $11.4 million back office. The three-hanky The Choice grossed $6.1 million while Pride + Prejudice + Zombies got skewered with $5.2 million.
In the niches, a clutch of Indian imports tanked, with only Ghayal Once Again registering at $167,000. Incoming from China were solid debuts for The Monkey King 2 and From Vegas to Macau III with respective openings of $163,000 and $112,000. And psychological thriller Regression raised only commercial anxiety with a $32,100 gross from 100 screens.
The dark cloud of Super Bowl loomed over the frame with anticipated Sunday plunges augmented slightly by generally upbeat Saturday gains. Ultimately it shapes up as a $95 million weekend that reps a 33% drop from seven days ago and a 39% decline from 2015 when the debut of the SpongeBob Squarepants sequel led with $55.4 million and Jupiter Ascending bowed to $18.4 million.
None of the weekend freshmen class was expected to generate potent returns. Still Hail, Caesar arrived as anticipated at the high end of the pre-teens. The all stops out comic romp of a bygone Studio era appeared to be cushioned by devotees of Coen brothers’ zaniness though fans ranked it as a lesser effort. Studio exit polling tagged the audience as 52% male with 69% aged 35-years and older.
The umpteenth adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks weepy, The Choice, continued a trend of diminishing returns with tracking that presaged slightly better than recorded $7 million to$8 million returns. It nonetheless hit a target crowd with ticket buyers consisting of 81% women and girls with 57% aged 25-years and younger.
The big disappointment was Pride + Prejudice + Zombies that failed to connect with either the Jane Austen cult or fans of the Seth Grahame-Smith mashup. Tracking indicated the film had comparable appeal to Hail, Caesar but box office returns suggested it was one spoof too far and its 60% male audience indicated that Austen devotees were not amused. It also played older with 60% of viewers aged 25-years and older.
With The Revenant the sole major Oscar contender in the top 10 (and a DGA win last night) one has to wonder whether the likes of Spotlight and The Big Short are feeling the big chill. With the “big” event so late in the season, the sort of surprise endemic from last month’s unveiled winners has slowly evolved into a set of inevitable winners in major acting, craft and technical categories with potential sucker punches coming in areas that only the cognoscenti care about.
| Weekend (estimates) February 5 – 7, 2016 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | Fox | 21.2 (5,320) | -49% | 3987 | 69.3 |
| Hail, Caesar! | Uni | 11.4 (5,120) | NEW | 2232 | 11.4 |
| The Revenant | Fox | 7.0 (2,310) | -45% | 3018 | 149.6 |
| Star Wars: The Force Awakens | BV | 6.8 (3,020) | -38% | 2262 | 905.9 |
| The Choice | Lionsgate | 6.1 (2,400) | NEW | 2531 | 6.1 |
| Pride + Prejudice + Zombies | Sony | 5.2 (1,760) | NEW | 2931 | 5.2 |
| The Finest Hours | BV | 4.7 (1,500) | -54% | 3143 | 18.4 |
| Ride Along 2 | Uni | 4.5 (2,070) | -46% | 2172 | 77.2 |
| The Boy | STX/eOne | 4.1 (1,840) | -46% | 2214 | 26.9 |
| Dirty Grandpa | Lionsgate/VVS | 4.0 (1,570) | -47% | 2567 | 29.4 |
| The 5th Wave | Sony | 3.7 (1,560) | -49% | 2346 | 25.6 |
| 13 Hours: Secret Soldiers of Benghazi | Par | 2.9 (1,400) | -54% | 2059 | 47.8 |
| Fifty Shades of Black | Open Road/D Films | 2.1 (1,010) | -65% | 2075 | 9.4 |
| The Big Short | Par | 1.8 (2,060) | -42% | 860 | 63.7 |
| Daddy’s Home | Par | 1.5 (1,460) | -51% | 1018 | 145.3 |
| Brooklyn | Fox Searchlight/Mongrel | 1.1 (1,550) | -38% | 703 | 32.3 |
| Spotlight | Open Road/eOne | .81 (1,210) | -33% | 668 | 36.1 |
| Room | 424/Elevation | .64 (1,010) | -48% | 631 | 11.1 |
| 45 Years | IFC/Mongrel | .46 (2,890) | -9% | 159 | 2.1 |
| 2016 Oscar Shorts | Magnolia | .40 (2,860) | -29% | 139 | 1.2 |
| The Lady in the Van | Sony Classics | .37 ((4,520) | 24% | 82 | 1.2 |
| The Hateful Eight | Weinstein Co. | .34 (920) | -52% | 373 | 53 |
| Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip | Fox | .31 (1.040) | -32% | 300 | 83.7 |
| Ip Man 3 | Well Go | .30 (2,780) | -42% | 109 | 2.2 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $89.55 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -39% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -33% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Carol | Weinstein Co. | .20 (860) | -53% | 236 | 11.8 |
| Ghayal Once Again | B4U | .17 (2,090) | 80 | 0.17 | |
| The Monkey King 2 | China Lion | .16 (4,290) | 38 | 0.16 | |
| Anomalisa | Par | .16 (1,070) | -56% | 147 | 2.2 |
| The Danish Girl | Focus | .12 (800) | -52% | 155 | 10.6 |
| From Vegas to Macau III | Media Asia | .11 (5,330) | 21 | 0.11 | |
| Son of Saul | Sony Classics | 94,300 (1,750) | -43% | 54 | 0.88 |
| Mustang | Cohen/Mongrel | 62,400 (1,600) | -30% | 39 | 0.71 |
| Trumbo | Bleecker Street | 41,800 (690) | -47% | 61 | 7.7 |
| 600 Millas | Lionsgate | 38,700 (730) | 53 | 0.04 | |
| A Date with Fortune | Vision | 33,800 (8,450) | 4 | 0.03 | |
| Regression | Weinstein Co. | 32,100 (320) | 100 | 0.03 | |
| Visaaranai | Praneeth | 26,300 (2,020) | 13 | 0.02 | |
| Sanam Teri Kasam | Eros | 21,300 (670) | 32 | 0.02 | |
| Rams | Cohen Media | 14,500 (4,830) | 3 | 0.01 | |
| Misconduct | Lionsgate | 14,100 (500) | 28 | 0.01 | |
| Fatima | Film Movement | 11,700 (2,920) | 4 | 0.01 | |
| Speedunnodu | Pushkala | 11,200 (270) | 42 | 0.01 | |
| 4th Man Out | Gravitas | 9,800 (980) | 10 | 0.01 | |
| I Knew Her Well (reissue) | Janus | 9,500 (4,750) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Eisenstein in Guanajuato | Strand | 8,300 (2,070) | 4 | 0.01 | |
| Tumbledown | Starz | 8,300 (4,150) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Southbound | Orchard | 6,300 (1,570) | 4 | 0.01 | |
| The Club | Music Box | 4,900 (2,450) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – February 4, 2016) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Buena Vista (4) | 272.1 | 25.10% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (7) | 249.2 | 23.00% | |||
| Paramount (4) | 163.9 | 15.10% | |||
| Universal (4) | 111.3 | 10.30% | |||
| Lionsgate (4) | 50.4 | 4.60% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (4) | 48.6 | 4.50% | |||
| Sony (6) | 43.3 | 4.00% | |||
| Focus (2) | 32 | 3.00% | |||
| Warner Bros. (5) | 24.8 | 2.30% | |||
| STX (2) | 21.3 | 2.00% | |||
| Open Road (2) | 15.6 | 1.40% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (2) | 9.8 | 0.90% | |||
| Other (51) * | 40.8 | 3.80% | |||
| 1083.1 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.45% | |||||
