1. Hidden Figures- $20.4M/$54.8M
This is Hidden Figures' fourth week in release and second straight at #1, adding another $20.4M to its impressive total. The crowd-pleasing biopic about the African-American mathematicians key to NASA's success in the Space Race has been riding a wave of solid buzz and Oscars aspirations. It probably didn't hurt to have the whole MLK holiday weekend, too. At a time when many deserving movies flop, it's good to see one get all of the attention it deserves.
2. La La Land- $14.5M/$74M
Unbelievably, the consensus #1 Best Picture frontrunner still hasn't surpassed 2000 screens, and yet has earned $74M overall. That's all part of a whopping 43% uptick in its sixth weekend as the Hollywood musical keeps sweeping audiences off their feet.
3. Sing- $13.8M/$233M
4. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story- $13.7M/$498.8M/
5. The Bye Bye Man (review) $13.3M
The top new release of the week? The Bye Bye Man, another low budget horror settings its feet in the slow month of January. The $7M effort features no real big stars and likely won't stick around for long given the number of genre flicks coming up, so if you really want to see it, now's the time.
6. Patriots Day (review)- $12M/$12.9M
I'm not sure what to make of Patriots Day, Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg's latest harrowing story of human triumph over tragedy. And for the second straight time, audiences slept on it, just as they did Deepwater Horizon last year. The film has been out for a month but only just expanded to wide release like a few other Oscars hopefuls did this week. The good news is that it only cost $40M to produce, but at this rate it'll be tough to reach, at least domestically.
7. Monster Trucks (review)- $10.5M
Oh, where to begin? Paramount's Monster Trucks came out of the gate weak with only $10.5M. That much isn't really a surprise. The film has been the subject of jokes ever since the studio predicted it would lose $115M on the kiddie effort about a teen and his pet monster that powers up his favorite vehicle. The surprise is that the movie isn't really so bad. I personally would have given it a better score than our reviewer did, finding the Lucas Till/Jane Levy comedy kind of charming in a Pete's Dragon sort of way. Perhaps if it hadn't cost an indefensible $110M we wouldn't be looking at this as such a disaster.
8. Sleepless- $8.4M
Jamie Foxx had a new movie that came out this week, ya'll! The former Best Actor winner starred in Sleepless, a thriller in which he plays a cop who must rescue his son over the course of an evening. Apparently nobody knew because the film, a remake of a 2011 French/Belgian thriller, only earned $8.4M ouch. It probably didn't help to not be screened for press, generally a sure sign that a movie is being dumped in hopes nobody actually does see it. Crazy I know, but it happens.
9. Underworld: Blood Wars- $5.8M/$23.9M
Yeah, that $23M number sucks for the fifth movie in the Underworld franchise, but worldwide it has $70M which is in line with expectations. Get ready for a sixth movie, folks!
10. Passengers- $5.6M/$90M
So you might be asking where the heck is Ben Affleck's Live by Night? The gangster tale opened soft over Christmas holiday and hasn't grown any stronger in wide release, only earning $5.4M/ The star-studded movie features Affleck in a dual role as director and star, joined by Elle Fanning, Zoe Saldana, Sienna Miller, Brendan Gleeson, and Chris Cooper, but none of that seemed to matter. It just didn't have the reviews to power it very far, with most (including me) thinking it to be the least effective movie Affleck has directed.
Finally, Martin Scorsese's long-awaited religious drama Silence (review) didn't do much in expansion, earning just $1.9M. That's just $3M after four weeks, and probably nobody is going to be surprised by how poorly it's performing. Despite Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver in the lead roles, the film is not what audiences go to the movies looking to pay for. Think what you want about what says about American audiences, but it's the truth.
