What is Batman’s favorite weapon? A batarang, of course. And what do batarangs do if they don’t thunk the bad guys on the noggin? Come right back to where they were thrown from. So it’s only fitting that The LEGO Batman Movie found itself at No. 1 again in its second weekend.
LEGO Batman banked 34.2 million in bat-dollars over the traditional three-day weekend to reclaim its second-straight bat-box office victory. By the time President’s Day receipts are counted sometime tomorrow, the flick will probably crest the $100 million mark for its domestic run—just the second 2017 film to do so during this still-young year. (Split, at $124.9 million, is the first.) Granted, by LEGO Bruce Wayne’s standards, $100 mil might not look like much. Still, it’s looking increasingly doubtful that anyone at Warner Bros.’ will have to go robbin’ any banks to make ends meet.
Ha ha! Get it? Robin?
Yeah, OK, moving on.
For the second straight weekend, Fifty Shades Darker finished second to LEGO’s blocky caped crusaders. It earned just $21 million—a 55% dip from last weekend’s tally. But that was still more than enough to pull down The Great Wall, the weekend’s highest-profile newcomer. The big-budget actioner proved that while American audiences will watch Matt Damon do just about anything, they don’t necessarily want to watch him fight CGI monsters in ancient China while speaking with an indeterminate accent.
That said, The Great Wall wasn’t made with American audiences primarily in mind. Directed by famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, the flick was aimed squarely at sweeping in Chinese renminbis, not U.S. dollars. And by that measure, The Great Wall has done just fine, thanks—collecting an estimated $244.6 million overseas thus far. That’s practically a fortune, cookie.
John Wick: Chapter Two landed in fourth place with $16.5 million, pushing down the weekend’s second prominent newcomer, Fist Fight, to fifth. The latter, an R-rated comedy featuring ice Cube and Charlie Day, scrapped and clawed its way to $12 million.
Still, the knuckler fared far better than the seriously ill A Cure for Wellness, the third major movie making its debut. This freaky horror flick collected $4.2 million to finish way down in 10th place. And while its makers will try to put a positive spin on its performance, we can’t really ignore the eel-ephant in the room: It just didn’t do very well.
Recent Comments