After finishing in a close second place the previous two weekends, 20th Century Fox’s The Revenant moved into first place last weekend with $16.01 million. The Alejandro González Iñárritu directed western starring Leonardo DiCaprio was down 50 percent from the previous weekend, as the box office in general was slowed by Winter Storm Jonas hitting the East Coast. Sunday’s NFL Conference Championship Games were also expected to negatively impact Sunday’s grosses. Even with last weekend’s slowing, The Revenant continued to impress with $119.20 million after 17 days of wide release and an additional two weeks of limited release. The Revenant is likely to stabilize next weekend thanks in part to healthy word of mouth and the continued buzz around the film’s 12 Academy Award nominations.

The Revenant, which received 12 Oscar nominations, moved into first place at the box office last weekend. (Photo: Kimberly French/20th Century Fox)

Walt Disney Studios’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens was up one spot from the previous weekend to claim second place with $14.08 million. The seventh chapter of the Star Wars franchise was down 47 percent from the previous weekend. Without adjusting for inflation, The Force Awakens claimed the 10th largest sixth weekend gross on record. The Force Awakens continues to pad its total as the highest grossing film of all-time domestically with $879.11 million through 38 days of release. That leaves the film just $20.89 million away from becoming the first ever the reach the $900 million domestic mark. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently running 59 percent ahead of the $551.74 million 38-day take of 2009’s Avatar and 44 percent ahead of the $611.23 million 38-day gross of last year’s Jurassic World.

Universal Pictures’ Ride Along 2 was down two spots and 65 percent from its debut weekend to land in third with $12.46 million. The PG-13 rated comedy sequel starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart held up much worse in its second weekend than 2014’s Ride Along, which fell 49 percent to take in $21.30 million. Word of mouth isn’t as strong for Ride Along 2 as it was for Ride Along, although last weekend’s winter storm obviously had an effect on the film’s hold as well. Ride Along 2 has grossed $58.61 million in 10 days. While that’s solid with the film’s price tag in mind, it’s below expectations and places the film 22 percent behind the $75.54 million 10-day start of Ride Along.

As expected, last weekend’s three new wide releases were fairly bunched together with one another. Only $785,519 separated the top opener from the lowest.

Dirty Grandpa opened in fourth place with $11.11 million. The R-rated comedy from Lionsgate starring Robert De Niro and Zac Efron performed towards the lower end of expectations. Poor critical reviews and Sunday’s NFL Conference Championship Games appear to have had more of an effect on Dirty Grandpa than they did on The Boy and The 5th Wave.

STX Entertainment’s The Boy debuted in fifth place with $10.78 million. The low-budget PG-13 rated horror film starring Lauren Cohan opened towards the lower end of expectations and was off to a solid start with its reported $10 million production budget in mind.

Sony Pictures’ The 5th Wave was off to a sixth place start of $10.33 million. The young adult adaptation starring Chloë Grace Moretz also opened towards the lower end of expectations. The film is performing stronger overseas than it is domestically.

Meanwhile, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi followed in seventh place with $9.03 million. The Michael Bay directed action thriller from Paramount Pictures was down 44 percent from the previous weekend, which represented one of the weekend’s better holds among wide releases. 13 Hours was helped out by healthy word of mouth and by expanding into 528 additional locations, which included an expansion into Canada. 13 Hours has grossed $32.76 million in 10 days. That is a bit below expectations.

Walt Disney Studios’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens took in $42.35 million to lead the weekend box office for a fourth consecutive week. The seventh chapter of the Star Wars had the second largest fourth weekend gross of all-time; behind only the $50.31 million fourth weekend take of Avatar back in January 2010. The Force Awakens was down 53 percent from the previous weekend, because so many moviegoers have already seen it, the end of the holidays and The Revenant entered theaters last weekend (Jan. 8-10).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens led the box office for the fourth consecutive weekend and has earned the second largest gross ever. (Photo: David James/Lucasfilm)

Still, Star Wars: The Force Awakens passed the $800 million mark over the weekend and continues to add to its total as the highest grossing film of all-time domestically with $812.73 million in 24 days of release. It is running 89 percent ahead of the $430.85 million 24-day take of Avatar and 46 percent ahead of the $556.54 million 24-day gross of last year’s Jurassic World. When adjusting for inflation, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now in 12 place on the all-time adjusted domestic list, as the film moved past Return of the Jedi, The Exorcist and The Empire Strikes Back last weekend.

Twentieth Century Fox’s The Revenant had a terrific expansion into wide release with a close second place take of $39.83 million. The Alejandro González Iñárritu directed western starring Leonardo DiCaprio exceeded expectations and claimed the fourth largest January opening weekend of all-time without adjusting for inflation. It was especially important for The Revenant to get off to a strong start considering the film’s expensive price tag. The Revenant is another strong performer for DiCaprio. Last weekend’s performance was just ahead of the $37.85 million debut of 2014’s Lone Survivor and 63 percent ahead of the $24.44 million Zero Dark Thirty took in during its first weekend of wide release in January 2013. After two weeks in limited release, The Revenant has grossed $41.38 million in 17 days. It will hope to hold up well going forward, thanks in part to its awards season buzz, which was strengthened by its three Golden Globe wins Sunday night.

Paramount Pictures’ Daddy’s Home finished in third place with $15.02 million. The PG-13 rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg was down a 49 percent from the previous weekend, as the end of the holiday season and the stronger than expected performance of The Revenant affected holdovers in general last weekend. Even with the decline, Daddy’s Home continues to impress with a stronger than expected 17-day take of $116.33 million.

The Forest debuted in fourth place with $12.74 million. The PG-13 horror film from Focus and Gramercy starring Natalie Dormer exceeded expectations and was off to a solid start considering its modest $10 million reported production budget. January tends to be a good month to open horror films and that trend continued for The Forest. Going forward, it should be front-loaded given its genre and the upcoming direct competition from STX Entertainment’s The Boy beginning Jan. 22.

Sisters rounded out the weekend’s top five with $7.19 million. Universal Pictures’ R-rated comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler fell 44 percent, which represented one of the weekend’s stronger holds. The movie continues to impress with a 24-day gross of $73.90 million.

The Weinstein Co.’s The Hateful Eight and Paramount’s The Big Short took sixth and seventh place with respective grosses of $6.40 million and $6.17 million. The break-out performance of The Revenant took a toll on both films, as The Hateful Eight was down 59 percent despite adding 464 theaters and The Big Short was down 32 percent despite adding 941 locations. Respective total grosses stand at $42.72 million for The Big Short in 31 days and at $41.53 million for The Hateful Eight in 17 days.

Walt Disney Studios’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens continued to lead the box office with ease last weekend (Jan. 1-3) with a third weekend take of $90.24 million. That represented the largest third weekend gross of all-time, as The Force Awakens topped the previous $68.49 million record of Avatar by $21.75 million and 32 percent. Thanks in part to continued strong word of mouth and to the New Year’s holiday, The Force Awakens was down just 39.5 percent from Christmas weekend.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens had the largest third weekend gross last weekend. (Photo: David James/Lucasfilm)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has grossed $742.21 million in 17 days. That already makes the film the second highest grossing film of all-time unadjusted domestically, as the film zoomed past the respective $658.67 million and $652.27 million lifetime grosses of Titanic and Jurassic World, respecitvely. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now just $18.30 million away from surpassing the $760.51 million lifetime gross of Avatar to become the highest grossing film of all-time domestically. When adjusting for ticket price inflation, The Force Awakens is currently in 18th place on the all-time adjusted list. It is currently running 48 percent ahead of the $500.37 million 17-day take of Jurassic World and 111 percent ahead of the $352.11 million 17-day take of Avatar.

Paramount Pictures’ Daddy’s Home continued to exceed expectations with a second place take of $29.21 million. The PG-13 rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg was down only 25 percent from the previous weekend’s stronger than expected debut. Daddy’s Home has been the clear alternative to The Force Awakens for moviegoers over the holidays and has grossed $93.89 million in 10 days.

The Weinstein Co.’s The Hateful Eight took third place with $15.71 million. On the heels of the previous weekend’s strong roadshow start, the Quentin Tarantino directed western had a more modest performance upon expanding into wide release. The Hateful Eight debuted below expectations. It is possible that last weekend’s performance was deflated a bit from the film’s fairly last minute release, but at the same time, the film will soon face new direct competition from 20th Century Fox’s The Revenant when that film expands into wide release this Friday. The Hateful Eight has grossed $29.05 million through 10 days of release, five of which have been in wide release.

Universal Pictures’ Sisters and 20th Century Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip were in fourth and fifth place with respective takes of $12.76 million and $12.07 million. Both films held up very nicely from the previous weekend, as Sisters was down 10 percent and The Road Chip dropped 8 percent. Respective 17-day grosses stand at $67.65 million for The Road Chip and $61.88 million for Sisters.

Twentieth Century Fox’s Joy and Paramount’s The Big Short claimed sixth and seventh place with respective grosses of $10.21 million and $9.06 million. Joy fell 40 percent from the previous weekend, while The Big Short was down 14 percent. Joy has grossed $38.52 million in 10 days, while The Big Short has grossed $33.06 million in 24 days. However, given its far better hold last weekend and its upcoming expansion on Friday; The Big Short should have no problem passing Joy before much longer.

Sony Pictures’ Concussion and Warner Bros. Pictures’ Point Break landed in eighth and ninth place with respective takes of $7.85 million and $6.82 million. Both films held up nicely, as Concussion fell just 25 percent from the previous, while Point Break dropped 30 percent. Concussion and Point Break both likely benefited from their Christmas weekend debuts having been deflated by direct competition from the massive second weekend performance of The Force Awakens. Respective 10 day grosses stand at $25.27 million for Concussion and at $22.40 million for Point Break.

Walt Disney Studios’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens continued its historic run last weekend (Dec. 25-27) with a record breaking second weekend take of $149.20 million. The blockbuster seventh installment of the Star Wars franchise zoomed past the previous second weekend record of $106.59 million set by Jurassic World earlier in the year by $42.61 million and 40 percent. Thanks in part to Christmas falling on Friday as well as very strong word of mouth, The Force Awakens fell 40 percent. In comparison, Jurassic World fell 49 percent in its second weekend. In addition, The Force Awakens topped the previous Christmas weekend record of $75.62 million, set by Avatar in its second weekend back in 2009, by 97 percent.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke the second weekend record by 40 percent over previous record holder Jurassic World. (Photo: David James/Lucasfilm)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has grossed $540.06 million in just 10 days. That already places the movie in fifth place on the all-time unadjusted domestic box office chart and in 41st place on the all-time adjusted domestic chart. The Force Awakens is currently running 34 percent ahead of the $402.80 million 10-day start of Jurassic World and 154 percent ahead of the $212.71 million 10-day gross of Avatar. In passing the $500 million domestic mark on its tenth day of release on Sunday, The Force Awakens is the fastest film to reach the $500 million milestone. Previous record holder Jurassic World took 17 days to reach it.

The next question for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is whether the film will be able become the first film to ever gross at least $100 million in its third weekend of release. Avatar currently holds the all-time third weekend record with $68.49 million.

In other box office news, Paramount Pictures’ Daddy’s Home was off to a terrific second place start with $38.74 million. The PG-13 rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg passed expectations. Pre-release online activity had been soft, but the film ultimately became the main Christmas alternative to The Force Awakens last weekend. Comedies aimed at family audiences have a history of surprising over Christmas weekend, as Daddy’s Home joins a list that also includes 2012’s Parental Guidance, 2008’s Marley and Me, 2006’s Night at the Museum and 2003’s Cheaper By the Dozen.

Twentieth Century Fox’s Joy debuted in third place with $17.02 million. The David O. Russell directed film starring Jennifer Lawrence opened in line with expectations. Joy is likely to be significantly front-loaded due in part to mixed reviews and in part to being viewed as an outsider for a Best Picture nomination.

Holdovers occupied fourth and fifth place last weekend, as Universal Pictures’ Sisters took in $14.19 million, while 20th Century Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip grossed $13.14 million. Sisters was up a healthy 2 percent over its previous weekend’s debut, while The Road Chip was down 8 percent. Respective 10-day grosses stand at $37.46 million for Sisters and at $39.85 million for The Road Chip, which places it 19.5 percent behind the $49.53 million 10-day take of 2011’s Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. Both Sisters and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip should continue to hold up well going forward.

Paramount’s The Big Short took in $10.53 million in its first weekend of wide release. The critically acclaimed Adam McKay directed film opened towards the lower end of expectations and had a promising performance with its award season potential, Wednesday expansion and modest location count of 1,585 in mind. It earned an additional $4.02 million on Wednesday and Thursday. The movie has grossed $16.02 million in 17 days and is scheduled to receive another expansion on Jan. 8 when the film will be playing in an estimated 2,500 locations.

Sony Pictures’ Concussion followed closely behind with an estimated $10.50 million. The Will Smith led sports drama opened towards the lower end of expectations. Despite concussions in the NFL being a very current topic among sports fans, Concussion ultimately couldn’t compete with the competition from The Force Awakens and Daddy’s Home last weekend.

Point Break landed in eighth place with an estimated $9.81 million. The pricey action remake from Warner Bros. Studios debuted on the lower end of already modest expectations and performed poorly with its price tag in mind. Point Break represents another poor recent performer for Warner Bros., as it joins the likes of Pan, Our Brand is Crisis, The 33 and In the Heart of the Sea over the past few months.

Meanwhile, The Weinstein Co.’s The Hateful Eight was off to an impressive start with$4.61 million from its 100 location 70mm roadshow launch. That gave the extended version of the Quentin Tarantino directed western a terrific per-location average of $46,107 for the weekend and placed the film in tenth place among all films last weekend. Given the strength of the weekend’s performance, The Hateful Eight looks to be in very good shape for its expansion into wide release this coming Thursday when the film will be playing in an estimated 1,800 locations.

Walt Disney Studios’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens had a historic debut with a record breaking opening weekend take of $247.96 million. The long awaited seventh installment of the Star Wars franchise had been expected to set a new all-time opening weekend record, and the film made good on those expectations and then some. The Force Awakens smashed the previous opening weekend record, as it opened $39.16 million and 19 percent ahead of the $208.81 million debut of previous record holder Jurassic World earlier this year. The opening weekend performance of The Force Awakens was made even more impressive by the fact that no prior December release had ever even opened above the $100 million domestic mark. The movie opened 193 percent higher than the $84.62 million debut of previous December opening weekend record holder The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey back in 2012.

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) with Stormtroopers in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. (Photo: David James/Lucasfilm)

In serving as a sequel as opposed to a prequel to the original Star Wars film, anticipation for Star Wars: The Force Awakens had been off the charts for what seems like ages. The film’s immense initial anticipation reached a fever pitch as the film’s release date approached thanks in part to a marketing campaign that was seemingly everywhere and very strong critical reviews that were unleashed just days before the film opened.

With the Christmas and New Year’s holidays ahead of it, the domestic run for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is only getting started. In addition to the extra boost it will get from the holidays; repeat viewings and strong word of mouth are sure to help it in a big way going forward. With an overseas debut of $281.0 million, the global launch for Star Wars: The Force Awakens stands at a record breaking $529.0 million. Previous record holder Jurassic World had a global launch of $524.4 million earlier this year.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip opened in a distant second with $14.29 million. The fourth installment of 20th Century Fox’s animated live-action hybrid franchise opened in line with expectations and performed respectably in the shadow of The Force Awakens. The Road Chip opened 38.5 percent below the $23.24 million start of 2011’s Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, but had been expected to open softer than its predecessor. With no new family films entering theaters until Lionsgate’s Norm of the North does on Jan. 15, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip is highly likely to hold up very well going forward.

Universal Pictures’ Sisters debuted closely behind in third with $13.92 million. Like The Road Chip, the R-rated comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler also opened in line with expectations. It should be noted that Sisters was far less expensive to make than The Road Chip was. Sisters should hold up very well going forward, as the film is positioned nicely to continue serving as counter-programming to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and to many of the new wide releases that will be entering theaters over the next two weeks.

After leading the box office for four consecutive weekends, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 fell to fourth place with $5.69 million. The final chapter of Lionsgate’s young adult blockbuster franchise was down 50 percent from the previous weekend. Holdovers in general were down sharply as a result of the added presence of The Force Awakens. Mockingjay – Part 2 has grossed $254.48 million in 31 days, which places the film 12 percent behind the $289.36 million 31-day take of last year’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.

Warner Bros. Studios’ Creed and Disney’s The Good Dinosaur claimed fifth and sixth place with respective takes of $5.01 million and $4.35 million. Creed was down 50 percent from the previous weekend, while The Good Dinosaur fell 58 percent. Respective 26-day totals stand at a softer than expected $96.66 million for The Good Dinosaur and at a stronger than expected $87.83 million for Creed.

In limited release, Hindi language films Dilwale and Bajirao Mastaniwere both off to nice starts last weekend. UTV’s Dilwale took in $1.92 million from 268 locations and has grossed $2.03 million since opening on Thursday. Eros’ Bajirao Mastani followed closely behind with $1.74 million from 304 locations. Dilwale ranked in ninth place among all films last weekend, while Bajirao Mastani placed in tenth.