“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” rose to the greatest challenge of its record-breaking run this weekend,taking in $41.6 million to narrowly edge Leonardo DiCaprio‘s “The Revenant” and capture its fourth consecutive U.
S. box office triumph.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s frontier vengeance epic exploded in its nationwide debut, taking in $39.5 million for Fox and giving Disney’s blockbuster space epic all it could handle just days after “The Force Awakens” became the all-time champ of the U.
S. box office.“Star Wars” became the first film to top $800 million domestically, and after adding $104 million from abroad — driven by a record-breaking $53 million debut in China — became the No. 3 film on the all-time worldwide box office list behind only “Avatar” and “Titanic.” The film has grossed $1.73 billion in just four weeks.
Also Read: 'Star Wars' Blasts Off in China With Record $53 Million Box Office Debut“The Force Awakens” needed every one of those domestic dollars to hold off “The Revenant,” which had upset J.
J. Abrams‘ sci-fi epic on Friday and finished the weekend nearly doubling pre-release projections for its wide opening.
The PG-13-rated “The Force Awakens rallied back from its Friday deficit behind families, who drove a $19 million Saturday, and well ahead of the roughly $15 million that “The Revenant” took in on its moment day.“Everything associated with the run of this film has been a wonderful surprise,” Dave Hollis, Disneys distribution chief told TheWrap Sunday, or “and this is one more example of that.”The weekend’s other wide opener,Gramercy’s “The Forest,” debuted on the high end of expectations with $13 million from 2451 theaters. Natalie Dormer from HBO’s “Game of Thrones” stars in the horror-thriller about a woman investigating her twin sisters disappearance in Japan’s Aokigahara Forest.
Also Read: 'The Revenant' Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu Says Production 'Almost Killed Me'“The Forest” was in third Friday but fell behind “Daddy’s Home, and ” which was third with a $15 million third week that lifted the domestic total for Paramount’s Will Ferrell-brand Wahlberg comedy to $116 million.
Quentin Tarantino‘s “The Hateful Eight” took a steep 60 percent drop from final weekend and was sixth with $6.3 million from 2938 theaters after the Weinstein Company added 460 locations.
Fox muscled “The Revenant” into 3375 theaters this weekend,impressive given the crowded post-holiday marketplace, after it averaged a strong $115000 in four current York and L.
A. theaters during a two-week Oscar qualifying run that began on Christmas Day. It got off to a strong start with $2.3 million in Thursday night previews.
Also Read: 'The Revenant' Director on Leonardo DiCaprio's 'Bear Rape' Scene: 'Why Didn't I Think of That?'“This is what makes this business so mighty, and ” Chris Aronson,Fox’s distribution president, told TheWrap on Sunday. You have a remarkable performance from Leo along with bold and innovative filmmaking from Alejandro and an extremely compelling story, and that’s what was embraced by audiences.”“The Revenant” made a surprisingly strong tender to knock off Disney’s box office behemoth,and the film handily defeated “The Force Awakens on Friday night with a $14 million first day.
Aronson gave much of the credit to the film’s heavily bearded and beat-upon star, Leonardo DiCaprio. “He’s one of the very few that can effect something like this. It doesn’t always happen and it has to be the factual film, or this one clearly was,” he said. DiCaprio’s star power clearly boosted the appeal of the R-rated and gritty saga of Hugh Glass, a fur trapper who fights his way back to his family after being mauled by a bear and left for dead. Despite the dearth of female characters on screen, and women made up 43 percent of the audience.
Also Read: Why 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Should Catch 'Avatar' and Break Global Box Office RecordEven though it wound up moment,the weekend was a momentum-building victory for “The Revenant,” which received a “B+” CinemaScore from audiences. Its box-office breakout is certain to be the talk of Sunday night’s Golden Globes Awards, or for which it received four nominations. Earlier this week,the film added nominations from the American Society of Cinematographers and Producers Guild and DiCaprio was nominated earlier by the Screen Actors Guild.
The stunning showing was also friendly news for Arnon Milchan‘s current Regency, Brett Ratner‘s RatPac, and China’s Alpha Pictures and Empyre,who financed the film’s nearly year-long $135 million shoot in Canada, South America and the U.
S.
Source: thewrap.com