Box Office: Hidden Figures and Rogue One in photo finish for No.1

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story looks set to continue atop of the US box office this weekend but there’s set to be a photo finish to see if the intergalactic adventure will be able to keep Hidden Figures from knocking it off the top for the first time since its release. And if estimates are to be believed, it will be very fine margins that separate the two especially after some of the country suffered from “severe winter weather” meaning many grosses dropped from their original estimates. (via Box Office Mojo)

The latest Star Wars film grossed $21.97million over the weekend (dropping 55.7%) which raises it’s already stellar domestic gross to $477.2million. Currently, it is now just $9million behind 2016’s top grosser Finding Dory and by next week with officially be the biggest film of the year.

It’s worldwide total continues to grow with another $56.6million added to its total over the weekend and now stands at $914.4million and could well be cross the $1billion before the end of its run. With the new total, the film now stands as the fifth largest of the year worldwide and sees Disney now have the top five films of 2016 across the globe.

However, its Hidden Figures that is the success story of this weekend’s chart with the film grossing a hugely impressive $21.8million after it expanded nationwide. The film which stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae and Kevin Costner, has been a huge hit with audiences and critics and has been rewarded with an excellent showing at the box office. With some of the other big award films slowly expanding it will be interesting to see how this one continues but its so far off to a great start.

Universal and Illumination’s Sing was third this week with a gross of $19.57million but also suffered a little due to adverse weather. But the animated film has been a smash and has generated $213.3million domestically thus far with another $26.4million added in international territories. The film opens in the UK at the end of the month.

The week’s big new release was Underworld: Blood Wars, the fifth film in the franchise, and opened to $13.1million. While it is the lowest grossing opening in the franchise domestically, the film has done decent business overseas with $42million which has already helped the film claim back its $34million budget.

And in fifth place was last night’s big Golden Globe winner La La Land, which expanded to over 1,500 theatres and grossed around $10million which brings its domestic haul to $51.6million and will only rise futher after the Globes and its continued expansion across the country.

In the week’s other expansions, A Monster Calls disappointed with around $2million from 1,523 theatres but will hopefully find an audience in the coming weeks; Ben Affleck’s Live by Night continues to have a tough release thus far with just $170,000 grossed so far but will be hoping for better luck when it expands to 2,700 theatres next weekend.

Martin Scorsese passion project Silence played in 51 theatres this weekend and grossed $480,000 for a total of around $862,000 while Mark Wahlberg-Peter Berg drama Patriots Day continued to do decent business. In its third weekend, the film has grossed $870,000 thus far and looks set to gross around $20million next weekend on its wide release.