Split is #1 for third week, Rings #2

For the weekend of February 3-5, 2017, M. Night Shyamalan's Split managed to stay #1 for the third week in a row. I hope he and James McAvoy had decent back-end percentage deals because they should make a lot of money from this movie, which had a modest $9 million production budget.

Of the new releases, Rings did best. For it to be yanked out of October and dumped here was the first signal it probably wasn't good. Its current 5% at RottenTomatoes would indicate it's going to disappear fast from theaters.

The Space Between Us was originally going to open in August, then December, and now finally here. Its 18% RottenTomatoes score tells me it'll disappear even faster than Rings.

Robert DeNiro's labor of love, The Comedian, opened on less than 900 screens and it still had a lower per-screen average than The Space Between Us.

Of the holdovers, Oscar darlings Hidden Figures and La La Land are still finding audiences. I'm rooting for Arrival to cross the $100 million domestic mark; it'll probably get there once it hits more discount theaters.

Where the current nine best picture nominees stand:

Hidden Figures - $119.4 million
La La Land - $118.3 million
Arrival - $98.64 million
Hacksaw Ridge - $66.36 million
Fences - $52.71 million
Manchester by the Sea - $43.91 million
Hell or High Water - $27.01 million
Lion - $24.71 million
Moonlight - $19.64 million

Opens February 10
LEGO BATMAN MOVIE with the voices of Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis and Jenny Slate.
FIFTY SHADES DARKER with Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan and Marcia Gay Harden.
JOHN WICK 2 with Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo and Laurence Fishburne.

Split stays #1, A Dog's Purpose #2

For the weekend of January 27-29, 2017, M. Night Shyamalan's Split held on to the top spot, with a very good 34.2% drop. Any time your second week is less than 40%, you know you have a word-of-mouth hit. By comparison, xXx 3 had a 59% drop.

Of the new releases, the Oscar-qualifying Gold fell on its face. Viewers weren't ready to watch a balding-capped Matthew McConaughey in a pale version of Wolf of Wall Street. The Founder found itself in a similar boat, but only dropping 21% without adding a single screen is a very good sign of people seeking it out.

The winner of the new releases was A Dog's Purpose, a family film opening right when December's releases are ready to dwindle and leave.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter ends the franchise with a whimper instead of a bang.

Hidden Figures, meanwhile, in its fourth week of wide release, only dropped 11%.

Opens February 3
RINGS with Aimee Teegarden, Alex Roe, Vincent D'Onofrio and Johnny Galecki.
THE SPACE BETWEEN US with Gary Oldman, Asa Butterfield and Britt Robertson.

Split - Movie Review

Starring James McAvoy, Ana Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Sebastian Arcelus and Brad William Henke.
Written & Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

★★★

I don't really want to say M. Night Shyamalan is back, since that what The Visit said. I'd say Split confirms that he's back, that the twist-happy director of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable is making good movies again.

This film centers on Kevin (James McAvoy), a DID patient who has that extra movie-trope level of multiple personalities. (Just go with it.) We learn that Kevin has 23 distinct personalities. We don't meet all of them, but we meet enough to watch McAvoy have a grand old time.

The 3 personalities we deal with most are Dennis, who kidnaps three girls; Patricia, who is in charge; and Hedwig, a 9-year-old who's amused by everything.

The main one of the three girls we deal with is Casey, played by Ana Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Morgan). She has her own issues, dealt with in flashbacks, that help her manipulate Kevin more easily than the other two.

It doesn't have a lot of jump-scares, but imminent danger is omnipresent. And I liked the twist ending, although I'd really classify it more as a stinger that adds a dimension to the movie.

Split Wins Box-Office Weekend

For the weekend of January 20-22, 2017, M. Night Shyamalan's Split overachieved over its tracking and solidifies between this and The Visit that Shyamalan in back.

xXx: The Return of Xander Cage didn't do quite as well. It was projected to win the weekend a couple weeks ago. Vin Diesel is a name, and even though it doesn't look good to open at $20 when you have an $85 million budget, but it's already made $50 million overseas and looks like it will ultimately break even if not be a little profitable.

Other new releases/expanses that have Oscar hopes (The Founder, 20th Century Women) couldn't really make a dent.

For the other titles, Hidden Figures is now on course to cross the $100 million mark domestically. It has yet to be released overseas, so anything it makes out of the US will be gravy.

Opens January 27
RESIDENT EVIL 6 with Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Iain Glen and Mike Epps.
A DOG'S PURPOSE with Dennis Quaid, Britt Robertson, John Ortiz and Josh Gad.
GOLD with Matthew McConaughey, Edgar Ramirez and Bryce Dallas Howard.