Box office report: LEGO Batman whips Fifty Shades Darker while John Wick surges
Though the race was closer than expected, Fifty Shades Darker ultimately submitted to The LEGO Batman Movie at the finish line, as the animated family feature launches with a $55.6 million weekend haul.
The third film to be released under the Warner Bros. Animation umbrella, LEGO Batman, a spinoff of the 2014 blockbuster The LEGO Movie, clocks in around $14 million softer than its forerunner, but its worldwide totals are still impressive: After three days in over 60 global territories, the film sold around $93 million worth of tickets, bounding past its $80 million production budget.
As family-oriented fare often does, LEGO Batman seemingly pleased the crowds it attracted, receiving an A- grade from polled moviegoers on CinemaScore. With such a strong audience-to-product connection, the original LEGO Movie‘s box office domination directly impacted the iconic toy brand’s sales, as profits rose by nearly 15 percent with additional double-digit sales growth in the U.S., U.K., Russia, France, and China in 2014.
Effective counter-programming to LEGO Batman‘s cross-demographic appeal, Fifty Shades Darker held its own against the blockbuster, taking in an estimated $46.8 million between Friday and Sunday for a solid No. 2 finish. The romance-tinged drama, a sequel to the 2015 E.L. James adaptation Fifty Shades of Grey, effectively courted its target audience, as Universal’s tracking indicates 70 percent of the opening weekend crowd was comprised of women. Around 56 percent of the total audience was under the age of 30.
The $55 million film commanded a further $100.1 million from 57 international territories for a global take of $146.9 million — enough to push the film to the top of the worldwide chart. The original Fifty Shades flick made just over $570 million around the world in 2015.
John Wick: Chapter 2 wrote the week’s biggest success story at No. 3, amassing a whopping $30 million over its first three days in wide release — more than doubling the $14.4 million bow posted by its 2014 predecessor. Tracking suggested an opening in the high teens, though the action sequel successfully tapped into the first film’s hungry cult audience, who gave star Keanu Reeves his highest opening weekend since The Day the Earth Stood Still tallied a $30.5 million start in 2008. Chapter 2 averaged $9,642 at 3,113 theaters and an A- grade on CinemaScore.
Rounding out the top five are M. Night Shyamalan’s Split ($9.3 million), which tumbles three spots after spending three consecutive weeks atop the North American chart, and perennial crowd-pleaser Hidden Figures, which adds around $8 million to its ballooning $131.5 million total.
Outside the top 10, a compilation of the Academy’s Oscar-nominated short films averages $3,587 at 184 sites for an estimated $660,000 finish. Belle director Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom, starring Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo, notches a decent number from four theaters, pulling in approximately $70,000 in limited release.
The week’s highest per-location average (an estimated $40,510 from a single theater), however, hails from Ceyda Torun’s documentary Kedi, which follows Istanbul’s curious population of cats.
Per comScore, overall box office is up around 1.7 percent from the same frame last year. Check out the Feb. 10-12 weekend estimates below.
1. The LEGO Batman Movie – $55.6 million
2. Fifty Shades Darker – $46.8 million
3. John Wick: Chapter 2 – $30 million
4. Split – $9.3 million
5. Hidden Figures – $8 million
6. A Dog’s Purpose – $7.4 million
7. Rings – $5.8 million
8. La La Land – $5 million
9. Lion – $4.1 million
10. The Space Between Us – $1.8 million