Weekend Forecast for January 27-29, 2017
By Reagen Sulewski
January 27, 2017
Some of this might have the potential to be overlooked if the film had redeeming qualities beyond “hey, puppy!” or Look Who's Talking with a dog, but unfortunately it's a bit of cinematic pabulum with the side possibility that you're supporting animal abuse baked into it. It's probably been knocked back from a high teens performer into around $12 million thanks to these allegations and the terrible reviews.
Finally, there's an expansion into wide release to deal with, as Gold arrives after an Oscar qualifying run. The film is a loose retelling of the Bre-X gold mining scandal (intimately familiar to Canadians, but a bit of a clean slate for everyone else). Matthew McConaughey plays the head of a small junior mining company that claims to have found a world-beating gold deposit deep in the Indonesian jungle. Billions could be at stake. The problem – it's all fraud, the result of salting the mines to get better results and fool Wall Street. Also starring Edgar Ramirez, Bryce Dallas Howard and Corey Stoll, it's a bit of a low rent companion piece to Wolf of Wall Street, and the chance to see McConaughey in a terrible baldcap and shouting like a crazed prospector. Directed by Stephen Gaghan, it was hoped to be a film with some Oscar potential, but has completely struck out, with only a Best Song Golden Globe nomination to hang on to. Opening in around 2,100 venues, it should land with a thud of around $5 million.
Last weekend, Split beat all expectations with a $40 million opening weekend for its multiple-personality horror film and the real-life horror of us having to deal with M. Night Shyamalan again, along with his too-clever-by-half twisty ways. Finally receiving good reviews for the first time in a while, the surprise result here probably won't end up with a leggy performance in weekend two, but might keep it from having the typical horror drop, and it should end up at around $22 million.
And now to films that will actually benefit from Oscars. Hidden Figures has emerged as one of the big winners of this season, taking its rather low-key biopic to close to $100 million so far, along with three Oscar nominations. While it's a big long shot to win any of them, it's a high profile nominee and popular already, which should help it hold at around $13 million this weekend. La La Land, with 14 nominations is the potential jackpot winner, however, even as it has almost $100 million itself so far. Expanding significantly to over 3,100 venues, it should see a huge boost to the point where it may threaten for top spot this weekend. I'd say it falls short with around $15 million, but as an original musical, it's already beaten expectations by a huge, huge amount.
Elsewhere in returning films we have xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, who we will soon be waving goodbye to again. With just $20 million in its opening weekend, it's proven to be no Fast and Furious, and will drop to about $9 million this weekend. Animated film Sing crossed the $250 million mark mid week, and should see around $6 million for its strong run since Christmas.
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Forecast: Weekend of January 27-29, 2017
|
Rank |
Film |
Number of
Sites |
Changes in Sites
from Last |
Estimated
Gross ($) |
|
1
|
Split
|
3,199
|
+161
|
22.1
|
|
2
|
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
|
3,104
|
New
|
17.3
|
|
3
|
La La Land
|
3,136
|
+1.271
|
14.8
|
|
4
|
Hidden Figures
|
3,351
|
-65
|
12.9
|
|
5
|
A Dog's Purpose
|
3,058
|
New
|
11.7
|
|
6
|
xXx: The Reutrn of Xander Cage
|
3,651
|
0
|
9.5
|
|
7
|
Sing
|
2,690
|
-593
|
6.2
|
|
8
|
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
|
2,049
|
-554
|
4.6
|
|
9
|
Gold
|
2,166
|
New
|
4.2
|
|
10
|
Monster Trucks
|
2,496
|
-613
|
3.5
|
Continued:
1
2
|
|
|
|
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