The Weekend Report

A definite horse race, but Rogue One edged out the national expansion of Hidden Figures with respective estimated weekends of $21.8 million and $21.7 million. The session’s sole new national release was the latest installment of the Underworld franchise, Blood Wars, with $12.9 million.

It was also slim pickings for new limited releases with a modest launch of $102,000 for the latest Jackie Chan action-comedy adventure Railroad Tigers at the front of the train.

There was considerable maneuvering and expansion among holiday entries, including the family fantasy A Monster Calls , which grossed a disappointing $2 million.

Revenues for the frame generated roughly $133 million for a 30% decline from last weekend. It was a more modest 17% decline from 2016 when the fourth weekend of Star Wars: The Force Awakens led with $42.3 million and the national launch of The Revenant took second position with $39.8 million.

The box office for 2016 finished up with $11.51 billion including an unprecedented $3 billion tally for the folks at Disney (see chart). It represented a 2.6% increase from the prior year while admissions dipped back about 2% overall.

Hidden Figures , the true story of three black female analysts in the early days of NASA, was a late addition in the annual awardscderby. An entertaining telling of bygone race relations, it nonetheless is unstinting in observations of latent discrimination in society that lingers to today. The studio opted to open prior to the Martin Luther King holiday and capitalize on positive buzz and that proved effective. Exit demos identified its audience as 64% female with 56% aged 35-years and older.

The revived Underworld: Blood Wars opened in most international markets in December and had a tidy $45 million tally prior to its domestic launch. It provided a solid bit of counter-programming in a generally rarified climate. The audience was 56% male with 63% 25 years and older.

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