leonaro dicaprio the revenant

Revenge thriller ‘The Revenant’ nearly accomplished the impossible.  It actually topped ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ at the box office… on Friday.  But The Force was strong and rallied, winning the weekend as a whole, taking in an additional $41.6M.  ‘The Revenant’ will have to settle for the silver medal and its impressive $38M opening.

But ‘Star Wars’ actually dropped by over 50%, which is in keeping with last weekend’s other holdovers, including comedies ‘Daddy’s Home’ (down 48.6%, taking #3 with $15M) and ‘Sisters’ (down 43.8%, #5 with $7.17M).

Debuting at #4 was the low budget thriller ‘The Forest’, which mirrors prior January fright-fests ‘The Lady In Black 2’ and ‘Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones’.  Unfortunately, ‘The Forest’ also shares their poor reviews and lackluster audience reaction.  But with its minuscule budget, ‘The Forest’ should wind up with about $25M, putting it in the black.

Here are the rankings:

  1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney) – $41.6M
  2. The Revenant (20th Century Fox) – $38M
  3. Daddy’s Home (Paramount) – $15M
  4. The Forest (Gramercy) – $13M
  5. Sisters (Universal) – $7.17M

Taking a huge hit was ‘The Hateful Eight’ which fell out of the top five altogether.  Quentin Tarantino’s latest lost almost 60% of its first weekend grosses despite expanding onto over 400 additional screens. Also expanding, but slipping in grosses was ‘The Big Short’ but that film has already had a healthy run in limited release.  Like ‘The Revenant’, the Academy Award nominations later this month could give this film a boost, but that may come when it hits home video.

As for ‘The Revenant’ right now the buzz on it is that this could be the end of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Susan Lucci-esque losing streak at the Oscars.  As of right now, this was DiCaprio’s fourth best opening and depending on awards-talk, this movie could have legs that help it rack up in the coming weeks.

Next week, believe it or not, ‘Star Wars’ may actually vacate the throne to ‘Ride Along 2’.  If ‘The Force Awakens’ continues to slip, ‘Ride Along 2”s projected $40M opening should land it the top spot.  But we’ll see! Check back to see if the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart comedy can accomplish what no other movie in the past month has.

Source: Box Office Mojo