Box Office: Split still No.1; Rings, Space Between Us crash

It was Super Bowl weekend these past few days across the pond and many of the new releases to hit cinemas disappointed at the box office, but the news continues to be great for M. Night Shyamalan’s Split.

For a third straight week, Split sits atop the box office after its fantastic run. Bringing in around $14.6million, the James McAvoy/Anya Taylor-Joy thriller now sits at a superb $98.7million and will soon cross the $100million mark – the fifth of Shyamalan’s career so far. And with another big international weekend ($44million), the film now stands at $142.7million.

The first of the weekend’s new releases, Rings, opened at No.2 but had the worst opening of the series thus far with around $13million. Many of the reviews weren’t great (all reviews were embargoed until Friday morning) and the outlook doesn’t look great for the long-delayed. It did similar business internationally too with around $15.2million grossed for a $28.2million debut.

Controversial drama A Dog’s Purpose sat third this weekend, dropping around 41% from its opening to bring in around $10.8million. While a recent investigation grom the American Humane organisation cleared the film of any wrong doings on the set, the news may well have had some effect on its box office takings, which currently stand at $32.9million.

Similarly to Split, both Hidden Figures and La La Land continue their impressive runs since the festive period. Grossing around $10million again this weekend for 4th position, Figures has now grossed around $120million and continues to hold its position well amongst many of the new releases it has come up against.

And the juggernaut that is La La Land continues to dance its way to the Oscars – with an estimated $7.45million in the US and an international gross of around $20.1million, the musical now stands at $268million worldwide. Expect business to continues solidly right up until Oscar night when it may yet grow even further depending on the winners.

The week’ biggest let-down though was romantic drama The Space Between Us, which finished quite some way below early estimates. Starring Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson and Gary Oldman, the film only managed around $3.8million after quite a dismal run of reviews that put it someway below the $8-10million forecasts. With another slew of big titles due next week (Fifty Shades Darker, John Wick 2 and The Lego Batman Movie), this one will most likely now sink further.