- Box Office
World Box Office, January 9-16 2017
In the week following the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards, many winners and nominees filled in the top ranks of the domestic and global box office chart. Hidden Figures, for which Octavia Spencer enjoyed a nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and Hans Zimmer, Benjamin Wallfisch and Pharell Williams shared the nom for Best Original Score, finished in first place on the domestic charts over MLK weekend. This story of three unsung heroines of the Space Race made $20.845 million in this Friday – Monday period and has reached a domestic gross of $55.1 million. Figures began its release in select art-house theatres on Christmas day and gradually worked up to a full national offering, adding 815 theatres this frame to reach a total of 3,286 in the U.S. and Canada. It begins overseas engagements this Thursday, starting with Hungary and Italy.
Lionsgate and the team behind La La Land have had plenty of reason to sing and dance after their Best Picture – Musical or Comedy win last Sunday, but this frame’s box office result will have them keeping the party going even longer. Damien Chazelle’s contemporary musical darling, that turns the city of Los Angeles into a living tribute to Golden Age Hollywood rhythm and song, added a global cumulative of $32.3 million in the wake of their all-time record setting seven Golden Globe wins. In addition to the best picture nod, statuettes went to director Damien Chazelle, lead actor Ryan Gosling and his costar Emma Stone. Justin Hurwitz won for Best Original Score, while Damien Chazelle took home his second prize of the night for Best Screenplay. It took $14.5 million for the Friday – Sunday period and is expected to add another $3 million to that once Monday’s ticket sales are tabulated. Like Hidden Figures, this was easily its biggest frame to date. The same held true overseas where it made $17.8 million over the weekend and reached a foreign gross of $54 million. Its UK opening was the biggest ever for Lionsgate at $7.3 million, beating The Hunger Games by 22%. The combined domestic and international figure currently sits at $132 million, and growing.
Meanwhile the other best picture winner Moonlight, which took the prize in the Drama category, opted to stay on the indie circuit a little longer as its pressure cooker of buzz and acclaim comes closer to exploding onto the main stage by the minute. It made $1.1 million this weekend after moving into a lower-mid range 582 theatres. Its domestic total now sits at $14.6 million, with further national expansion and the beginning of its overseas releases set to start this week.
Moving on to the next rungs of the domestic chart, Universal’s Sing, which picked up nominations for Best Animated Picture and Best Original Song, finished the long weekend with $19.8 million at the North American box office. It added $13.2 million overseas as well to reach a total of $164.3 million, with key markets France the UK, Russia, Japan and China still to go. Its combined global figure is currently $397.3 million.
All of this means that our recent untouchable box office champion, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story got pushed all the way down to fourth place on the domestic chart. Rogue added $17.1 million over the long weekend and crossed the half billion mark at home. As of Sunday, its global cume was $980 million and it looks set to add that all-important final zero at anytime.
Speaking of global success, Passengers flew into its most titillating and exotic location this weekend and had a smooth landing in China, where it earned $17.5 million and easily unseated Rogue One from the top of the charts there. This marks Sony’s first release in the Middle Kingdom since entering into partnership with local film super power Dailan Wanda Group. The film’s total international take this frame was $38.1 million. Combined with Passenger’s domestic haul of $5.6 million, it has reached a global cume of $237.1 million.
Next weekend we’ll follow our current chart toppers and see how they do when they are joined by XXX: Return of Xander Cage, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, and McDonalds origin film The Founder.
Check the latest box office estimates worldwide below: