It was a big weekend at the box office as it felt like 2002 all over again as a new, original M. Night Shyamalan movie broke out in a big way earning an estimated $40.18 million. This was enough to place Split as the fourth largest January opening of all-time. This is a big improvement over Shyamalan's last film, the well-received 2015 flick The Visit, which opened to $25.4 million and went on to make over $65 million. If Split is able to continue on the same path as The Visit it would make this Shyamalan's first $100 million domestic earner since The Last Airbender brought in $131.7 million in 2010. Keep in mind, this is all on a $10 million budget as well. So, yeah, I'd say it's safe to say Shyamalan is back with news dropping today that we are definitely getting an official Unbreakable sequel next. Continuing the 2002 trend was the other major release of the weekend-xXx: Return of Xander Cage. As with the Fast films Vin Diesel returned to his second tier action franchise after opting out for the sequel only to return in a time when his own career desired profitable work outside the mothership that is The Fast & the Furious. Coming in at number two Return of Xander Cage garnered an estimated $20 million from 3,651 theaters including up charges for both 3D and IMAX showings. While this was in line with studio expectations I'm sure they were hoping for a little more given the film cost around $85 million to produce. The good news is that the film also brought in an estimated $50.5 million internationally this weekend, finishing #1 in thirty-two of the fifty-three markets it opened for an estimated $70.5 million worldwide total as of yesterday. Personally, I was pleased with the quality of both Split and xXx making this a January weekend for the books. Making it all the better was the expansion of Martin Scorsese's Silence to my neck of the woods as well as the nationwide rollout of The Founder starring Michael Keaton, both of which are worth a matinee if you're not up for something scary like Split or silly like Cage. As always, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel as we have a new review (or reviews) up each week!
No comments:
Post a Comment