Box office goes Rogue once again
LOS ANGELES — Moviegoers bid adieu to 2016 and welcomed 2017 over the four- day holiday weekend, spending about $ 200 million to see just the 10 top- grossing films, a pack led once again by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
In second place was Universal’s animated musical comedy Sing, with about $ 57.3 million, to bring its two- week domestic box office total to about $ 181 million.
The movie, featuring the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane and others at the top of its cast, fared modestly with critics, posting a 69 percent positive score at rottentomatoes. com and a 60 ( out of 100) at metacritic. com aggregate movie review sites, but faring noticeably better with filmgoers, who awarded it an A rating, according to cinemascore. com.
Those runaway hits are contributing to what industry sources are projecting to be a record year at the box office. Movie executives are expecting total domestic box office revenue to hit $ 11.3 billion
That is tempered, however, by the expectation that the number of tickets sold remained essentially flat in 2016 compared to 2015, and that because of the increase in movie streaming, studios are continuing to see profits drop from home video sales.
Also in its second week of release, Columbia Pictures’ sci- fi thriller Passengers placed third with $ 21 million.
Disney retained a second film in the Top 5, with Moana continuing to pull in moviegoers in significant numbers after six weeks, adding about $ 15.2 million to elevate its domestic total to $ 214 million.
Rounding out the Top 5, Fox’s comedy Why Him? starring Bryan Cranston and James Franco, posted an estimated four- day gross of $ 13 million, bumping its twoweek take to $ 37.7 million.
One of the best- reviewed films of 2016, Paramount’s screen adaptation of August Wilson’s play Fences, landed at No. 6, with $ 13.1 million, raising its domestic total to about $ 33 million.
In seventh place, Lionsgate Films’ La La Land, the L. A.based movie musical, took in about $ 12.6 million while still in limited release. Its four- week domestic total has reached about $ 37.3 million as director Damien Chazelle’s latest is poised to open today on more than 1,500 screens.
After two weeks of release, Fox’s video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed logged about $ 11.4 million, putting its domestic gross at $ 42.4 million.
Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter series spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them brought in about $ 5.6 million, which puts its domestic gross at about $ 226 million.
At No. 12, the RSA Films release Manchester by the Sea added an estimated $ 4.2 million, pushing its domestic gross to just under $ 28.5 million in seven weeks.
Having opened on Christmas Day in just 25 theaters, Fox’s Hidden Figures, which focuses on three math- andsciencesavvy black women who contributed significantly to the U. S. space program in the 1960s, added about $ 1.2 million through Monday, on its way to wide release today in about 2,500 theaters.
The based- on- a- true- story drama stars Taraji P. Henson as math genius Katherine Johnson and Octavia Spencer and R& B- pop singer Janelle Monae as her two comrades in overcoming prejudices against women and black people.