With no high-profile releases standing in his way, the Merc With a Mouth had another great run at the box office this weekend to set even more records.
Coming in first again is Deadpool, which brought in $55 million during its second weekend. That’s a 58.5 percent drop from its jaw-dropping debut, which is perhaps a steeper decline than some may have expected given its stellar word of mouth. However, the film is hardly in bad shape. It’s now up to $235.3 million domestically, which makes it the highest grossing X-Men film in the United States. Deadpool also surpassed 300 to become the top R rated comic book movie of all-time and is now working on becoming the biggest R rated film ever. In addition, Deadpool has pulled in nearly $500 million worldwide in just 10 days of release.
In second is Kung Fu Panda 3 with $12.5 million. The animated sequel keeps chugging along and has now made $117.1 million domestically.
Opening in third is the religious drama Risen, making $11.8 million in its first three days. Though the film did not receive the most enthusiastic critical response, it still found a way to appeal to its target audience, becoming the latest faith-based movie to find some success commercially. Risen is not poised to become a massive box office hit, but it should end up being a profitable endeavor for Sony; the production budget was only $20 million.
Debuting in fourth is horror film The Witch (read our review), which grossed $8.6 million. Though the movie received a minimal marketing campaign, it was able to draw in a sizable crowd due to the positive word-of-mouth. Out of all the new releases this weekend, The Witch was the one that got the most positive reviews, which made it an enticing option for casual viewers and horror fans alike.
Rounding out the top five is rom-com How to Be Single. The film brought in $8.2 million during its second weekend to raise its domestic total to $31.7 million.
Opening in sixth is the Jesse Owens biopic Race (read our review), which made just $7.2 million in its first three days. This has to be a disappointing result for Focus Features. The film received visible advertising (especially during televised sports games) to increase awareness, but it was done in by lukewarm reviews. Many pundits described this one as a standard biopic that wasn’t exactly “must see in theaters” material, which hurt its commercial prospects. It also did not help that Race didn’t have a bona fide star to sell the film. With interest low, Race will most likely fade away now.
Zoolander 2 is the #7 film with $5.5 million, a 60.3 percent drop from its opening weekend totals. The comedy sequel has now grossed just $23.7 million domestically.
Coming at #8 is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, grossing $3.8 million over the weekend. The space opera is up to $921.6 million in the States.
Awards contender The Revenant comes in ninth with $3.8 million. The drama has now grossed $165.1 million domestically.
Finishing off the top 10 is Hail, Caesar! The latest from Joel and Ethan Coen made $2.6 million to raise its total to $26.1 million.
[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates — based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, February 22 — at which time we’ll update this post with any changes.]
