Weekend Box Office: Kong Dominates as Logan, Get Out Hold Their Ground

By Chris Kavan - 03/12/17 at 09:08 PM CT

It was a monster weekend, led, of course, by one of the biggest monsters of them all, Kong. The great ape had little trouble topping the box office and his might helped propel the top 12 to $152.5 million - up 3.5% compared to the same weekend last year. While 2017 has lagged a bit behind 2016, the next few weekends should provide a much-needed boost to the box office with a lot of major films coming out. Logan and Skull Island both came in ahead of expectations - we'll see if Hollywood can keep the good times rolling.

1) KONG: SKULL ISLAND

There was really no question that Kong: Skull Island was going to win the weekend, but the big question is always: how good will it do? Once again, it seems most people underestimated the popularity of the great ape as Skull Island topped the box office with a $61 million opening. That was far ahead of most predictions, which only had it in the $45-$50 million range. Now, while that opening was under the $93.1 million of Godzilla, the weekend multiplier was a staggeringly-good 3x (compared to 2.4x for Godzilla). This means that Kong might be better off in the long run, though its total is likely to also fall short of the $200.7 million, if it can hold audiences attention, that will mean good news for the monster series going forward. In any case, audiences ran 56% male and 52% under 35 and gave the film a solid "B+" Cinemascore (which jumped to an even better "A" with audiences under 25). Much like Logan, the film was a hit with audiences and should remain steady even in the face of competition. A $160-$170 million total is likely. Even better, Skull Island earned $81.6 million in the foreign markets - even beating Godzilla in more than a few. Globally the film stands at $142.6 million thus far, with big markets China and Japan both to come. It has a good shot of being able to top Godzilla worldwide if it can open to decent numbers in those markets.

2) LOGAN

The final appearance of Hugh Jackman as everyone's favorite adamantine-fueled mutant dropped 57.2% in its second weekend to earn a respectable $37.85 million and stand strong in second place. That gives Logan a new total of $152.65 million and it will soon top The Lego Batman Movie ($159 million) to become the highest-grossing film of 2017 (albeit briefly - as the upcoming release of Beauty and the Beast will quickly take that crown away). It also passed Fifty Shades Darker ($368 million) to become the highest-grossing worldwide film with $438 million. Among X-Men films, it sits as the 8th-best domestic (and will in short order pass X-Men Apocalypse and the original X-Men) and 5th-best worldwide (and it will surely catch Last Stand at $459 million). However you slice it, Logan is going to come out on top of the three stand-alone Wolverine films, as it should catch up to the $179.88 million of Origins before long with a domestic total still in the $225 million range. It will also be one of the highest-grossing R-rated films before it ends its run. All told, this final chapter is worthy of its success.

3) GET OUT

The cultural phenomenon known as Get Out had another stellar hold, dipping just 25.4% in its third weekend and adding another $21 million to its $111 million total. It had become the second-highest grossing film for Blumhouse Productions (only behind their other breakout horror hit, Split with $135.8 million) and it is looking like Get Out will ultimately become their best in a few weeks time. The $4.5 million film has pretty much exceeded all expectations - the opening, the hold, the continued popularity - and it's showing little signs of slowing down. This will wind up as one of the biggest success stories of 2017 - and, like Logan, will be on of the highest R-rated films of all time (certainly among horror offerings) and one of the biggest original films (not based on existing source material) of the year as well.

4) THE SHACK

The faith-based The Shack also had a nice hold in its second weekend, dipping a light 37.9% and adding $10 million to bring its total up to $32.2 million. The Shack came in with just a $20 million budget, so everything from here on out will just add to its winning total. We'll see how close it can come to joining the higher-grossing Christian films like God's Not Dead ($60.75 million), War Room ($67.79 million) and Heaven is for Real ($91.44 million) before it ends its run. If it can continue holding on to decent numbers, certainly it will at least break in to the the top 10 among Christian films (it's currently in 15th place). This one has at least a few more weeks ahead of it, so we'll have to wait and see.

5) THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

Joining the club of films having a fantastic hold was The Lego Batman Movie, which held on well, dropping 33.2% in its 5th weekend out now, adding $7.82 million to its $159 million total. The film has essentially doubled its $80 million budget and (for now) is still the highest-grossing 2017 domestic release. Granted, it isn't going to be in that spot for long, but it's a nice title to have, even for a short time. The film has also earned $275 million worldwide. It is still on pace to top $175 million stateside even with the increased competition and should top $300 million worldwide.

Outside the top five: Moonlight officially became the biggest domestic release for A24 as it added $1 million for a new $26.99 million total and passing both The Witch at $25.1 million and Ex Machina at $25.44 million in the process.

La La Land crossed the $400 million mark worldwide as it sits at $416 million and counting, sitting just shy of $150 million statesidw with $148.44 million.

In limited release, Kristen Stewart's Personal Shopper had a great opening with $92,516 from just four theaters for an impressive $23,129 per-theater average. The non-typical ghost story probably won't expand wide, but its opening still looks good.

Next week Beauty and the Beast will become the first film of 2017 to top $100 million in its opening weekend, as Fandango says its tracking puts it ahead of Captain America: Civil War and that it is also the fastest-selling family film in its history (ahead of Finding Dory) leading one to believe this is going to be a huge opening. Meanwhile, The Belko Experiment is also opening - but the horror film is going to have a tough time making any waves amidst the current offerings.

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