The world according to Dan.

Box office: LEGO Batman scales The Great Wall for top spot

The LEGO Batman Movie keeps its adversaries at bay for the second weekend in a row as it adds an estimated $34.2 million to its $98.8 million North American total over the first three days of the holiday weekend.

The third film to be released under the Warner Bros. Animation umbrella, LEGO Batman repeats at the top of the domestic chart over Fifty Shades Darker, which holds steady at No. 2 with an estimated $21 million. Both films’ totals will increase tomorrow when final President’s Day estimates roll in.

Though it has yet to land at the top spot in the U.S. and Canada, Fifty Shades Darker sits pretty at the peak position on the worldwide chart for the second week in a row. The romantic sequel, adapted from E.L. James’ popular book series, commands a further $43.7 million from 59 markets for a combined global total of $276.9 million on a $55 million budget.

Matt Damon’s The Great Wall, a historical monster movie made by Zhang Yimou, one of the most respected Chinese directors working today, premieres to an estimated $18.1 million over its first three days at 3,326 sites — a decent start considering a potentially disastrous wave of controversy swirling around the film’s casting. The film marks Damon’s lowest-grossing wide opener since We Bought a Zoo kicked off with $9.4 million in 2011.

While its North American ticket sales are muted, worldwide audiences are driving the $150 million Legendary and Universal production to stellar business overseas. To date, The Great Wall has amassed $244.6 million from international territories, amounting to a massive $262.7 million global haul thus far, recalling the grosses of Universal’s 2016 actioner Warcraft, which made a soft $47.4 million in the U.S. but soared to $386.3 million from foreign audiences.

At No. 4, John Wick: Chapter 2 posts a sophomore tally that outshines its predecessor’s $14.4 million debut number by over $2 million, finishing the weekend with an estimated $16.5 million. Its domestic grosses now stand at $58.7 million.

Rounding out the top five is the New Line comedy Fist Fight, starring Charlie Day, Ice Cube, and Tracy Morgan. The laugher bows as the first live-action mainstream comedy to invade theaters since James Franco’s Why Him? launched in December, though audience response to the genre’s latest offering is muted at best; Fist Fight earns a middling B grade on CinemaScore, while moviegoers purchased roughly $12 million worth of tickets over the weekend.

Elsewhere, Hidden Figures descends out of the top five for the first time in six weeks as it falls 11 percent to an estimated $7.1 million. The Theodore Melfi-directed film reigns as 2016’s highest-grossing best picture Oscar nominee, with a ballooning total currently resting at a stunning $142.6 million. The calendar year’s most-nominated Oscar contender, La La Land, follows at No. 9 with $4.5 million, while its overseas sales pass the $200 million mark, bringing its global number to $339.6 million.

Coming in at No. 10 is the week’s final new wide release, A Cure for Wellness, director Gore Verbinski’s first feature since helming 2013’s The Lone Ranger. The horror-thriller clocks in with a disappointing $4.2 million three-day gross on a $40 million budget.

Per comScore, overall box office is down roughly 3.7 percent from the same frame last year. Check out the three-day Feb. 17-19 weekend box office estimates below. Four-day totals will be updated Monday.

1. The LEGO Batman Movie – $34.2 million
2. Fifty Shades Darker – $21 million
3. The Great Wall – $18.1 million
4. John Wick: Chapter 2 – $16.5 million
5. Fist Fight – $12 million
6. Hidden Figures – $7.1 million
7. Split – $7 million
8. A Dog’s Purpose – $5.6 million
9. La La Land – $4.5 million
10. A Cure for Wellness – $4.2 million

Pamela Anderson doesn’t think Dwayne Johnson was the right choice for ‘Baywatch’

Pamela Anderson isn’t convinced Dwayne Johnson is the right choice for the upcoming Baywatch movie.

The Canadian actress and model rose to fame as C.J. Parker on the 1990s action-drama TV series about Los Angeles County Lifeguards, starring opposite David Hasselhoff in his role as lifeguard Mitch Buchannon.

A movie reboot of the show starring the former WWE wrestling star in the part originated by David is set to hit theatres in May, but Pamela has already admitted she isn’t keen on Dwayne’s take on the character.

“It was funny to look at The Rock and think he was supposed to be (David) Hasselhoff,” she said during an interview with ITV’s Loose Women which aired on Monday. “It just didn’t quite gel, no.”

The 49-year-old also dished that she has a cameo towards the end of the movie. And while she enjoyed making her guest appearance, she isn’t sure the film needed to be made in the first place.

“I’m doing a cameo at the end. They asked me to. But I like the TV show. I never wanted to do the movie, I don’t like when they do these remakes of TV shows because it was bad TV for a reason. It was good bad TV, now it’s going to be a spoofy movie,” she shared.

Meanwhile, the blonde bombshell also opened up about her recent visits to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The controversial WikiLeaks founder sought asylum at the embassy in 2012 in order to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden on rape and sexual assault allegations, claims which he denies.

“I think he’s a very important person. I think that history will look back on him and realize how important he is,” she said. “WikiLeaks is very heroic and very important – and it’s true news and that’s hard to find these days. If you want to get something from the horse’s mouth you go to WikiLeaks and really find out. I think that’s important in this political climate.”

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