The Weekend Report

Hidden Figures seemed an all-too-appropriate chart topper for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend with an estimated three-day $20.4 million box office (all figures reflect three-days; chart will be updated tomorrow). The first holiday of 2017 offered three new national releases and two limited releases going wide, to grim or bland response. The chief exception was horror The Bye Bye Man , slashing to a $13.4 million debut. The ticking clock Sleepless grossed a passable $8.2 million while the widening of Patriots Day was nearly a flag-waver with $11.9 million.

The media has already had a field day with commercial pileup Monster Trucks, which revved up to $10.5 million. But the abject rejection of Ben Affleck’s Live By Night prohibition era gangster costumer hasn’t received its fair share of ink. It bowed nationally to $5.2 million.

Also broadening to a national profile was Martin Scorsese’s passion project Silence, which held its modest niche with a $1.9 million tally.

Holidays in India saw a spate of new films with strongest response for Telugu titles including Guatamiputra Satakarni ($687,000), the much anticipated Khaidi No. 150 ($543,000) and Shatamanam Bhavati ($321,000). New specialized niche fare from China and the Philippines was less buoyant with the former’s Some Like It Hot grossing a tepid $37,700 and the latter’s Extra Service finding no gratuity at $19,300.

Also of note was the continued slow roll out of 20th Century Women that added $310,000 from a mere 29 locations.

The session saw volume (rather than overall strength) generate slightly better than $150 million and uptick 8% from the immediate prior weekend. It was 6% behind 2016 levels when the debut of Ride Along 2 led with $35.2 million with The Revenant in the bridesmaid spot at $31.8 million.

The Bye Bye Man proved the surprise of the weekend with industry trackers punting top end expectations of $10 million. However it emerged as the counter-programmer of choice and a diverting cheap thrill with initial muscle. The film’s 61% female tilt was instrumental to its potency along with an audience that 75% aged 25-years and younger.

Patriots Day attracted a 53% male crowd with a decidedly older slant that was 84% aged 25 and older.

The media’s fascination with car crashes anticipated something more extreme for the fate of Monster Trucks with predictions of a $6-$8 million domestic launch. Paramount already posted a $100 million-plus pre-opening writedown. The film grossed $12 million gross in eearly foreign bookings. On the home front the audience was 53% male with 60% aged 25-years and younger.

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