Logan Slashes Its Way to the Top of Theaters
Twentieth Century Fox’s R-rated action film Logan, the final installment of the Wolverine series, earned an $88.41 million debut last weekend (March 3-5). The film had the highest theater count for an R-rated movie of all time and earned unusually high reviews for a superhero movie. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse’s horror Get Out, which led the previous weekend, took the runner-up spot with $28.23 million. Its 15.4 percent decline was the lowest second-weekend hold for a horror movie in many years, if not ever.
The claws came out and so did audiences for superhero film Logan starring Hugh Jackman as the iconic Wolverine character, which opened 10.3 percent below the $98.6 million inflation-adjusted opening of 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but 66.5 percent above the $53.1 million opening of 2013’s The Wolverine. It also started 33.2 percent behind the $132.4 million start of the other main R-rated superhero release Deadpool and in line with the $85.0 million opening of Hollywood’s last superhero release Doctor Strange.
Logan’s massive buzz was helped by its marketing campaign playing up the emotional aspects, including a trailer that featured almost no action sequences and the tragic song Hurt by Johnny Cash playing in the background. It also opened in the most theaters of any R-rated film ever on 4,071 screens, or 360 more than the previous widest R-rated release Spy. The movie’s strong buzz could indicate a strong hold moving forward, if it isn’t hurt too much by fellow March blockbuster competition like Kong: Skull Island or Power Rangers.
Get Out’s fantastic reviews helped it to hold steady at a level the industry basically never sees. With $78.08 million total through two weekends, the film has surged past its estimated $6 million budget. It is 1.0 percent in front of the $77.3 million total of Split through the same period, and that is one of the biggest original horror films of the decade.
Lionsgate’s faith-based drama The Shack took third place with $16.17 million. The Christian film starring Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer was based on the bestselling book of the same name. Compared to other recent faith-based releases, the movie started 43.1 percent ahead of the $11.3 million opening of War Room and 9.3 percent ahead of the $14.8 million debut of Miracles from Heaven.
Open Road Films’ young adult sci-fi drama Before I Fall opened in sixth place with $4.69 million. The movie stars Zoey Deutch as a teenager forced to live the last night of her life over and over. The film started 26.8 percent above the $3.7 million opening of last month’s The Space Between Us, another young adult sci-fi drama.
A24’s Moonlight, fresh on the heels of its Oscar win for Best Picture, expanded into 1,564 theaters and earned the best weekend of its entire theatrical run with $2.30 million in 13th place. It is even more impressive considering it was just released on DVD, which is usually the nail in the coffin for theatrical revenue. Its $25.15 million total to date is decent relative to its production budget, though it nonetheless ranks as one of the lowest grossing Best Picture winners of all time.
And Open Road’s Collide dropped a whopping 88.5 percent in its second weekend to only $173,000, claiming 17th place and the worst second-weekend fall of all time, overtaking 2005’s Undiscovered with 86.4 percent.
The top 10 films this weekend earned a cumulative estimated $168.02 million. That is 61.8 percent above the $103.87 million earned by the top 10 films the previous weekend. It is also 84.2 percent above the $91.2 million earned by the top 10 on this same weekend last year, when Deadpool led for the third consecutive weekend with $31.1 million.
This Week | Last Week | Movie | Weekend Gross | Cumulative Gross | Weeks |
1 | — | Logan | $88.41M | $88.41M | 1 |
2 | 1 | Get Out | $28.24M | $78.08M | 2 |
3 | — | The Shack | $16.17M | $16.17M | 1 |
4 | 2 | The Lego Batman Movie | $11.70M | $148.68M | 4 | 5 | 3 | John Wick: Chapter 2 | $4.80M | $82.95M | 4 |
6 | — | Before I Fall | $4.69M | $4.69M | 1 |
7 | 7 | Hidden Figures | $3.83M | $158.77M | 11 |
8 | 4 | The Great Wall | $3.63M | $41.39M | 3 |
9 | 5 | Fifty Shades Darker | $3.56M | $109.99M | 4 |
10 | 8 | La La Land | $2.99M | $145.70M | 13 |
Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.