Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
January 7, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The top film on Friday and now also the answer to a trivia question, Hidden Figures earned $7.5 million on Friday, after earnings of $2.9 million in just 25 theaters since Christmas Day. A dark horse for a Best Picture nomination, and buoyed by a 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating and an A+ CinemaScore, Hidden Figures is likely stick around for a while after this weekend. It’s actually shaping up to be a close race between Hidden Figures, Rogue One and Sing for the weekend crown, but Hidden Figures has the edge here, with $23.2 million for the weekend.
Underworld: Blood Wars
The fifth entry in the Underworld franchise earned about $5 million on Friday. That’s a significant drop from the $9.3 million earned by Underworld: Awakening in its first day in January 2012. All four previous films actually managed $20 million or more openings, but that streak ends here. Underworld: Blood Wars is looking at a weekend of $13.5 million.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
With the Twelve Days of Box Office over, Star Wars earnings drop to “normal” levels, which in this case is about $6 million on Friday, a 66.7% decline from last Friday. It’s now got $461.3 million in the bank, and while it seemed a little out of reach initially, it’s now in striking distance of Finding Dory’s $486.2 million to be the top grossing film released in 2016. Behold the power of the last week of December. Anyway, on this weekend a year ago, the first weekend not buffed by a holiday, The Force Awakens managed a ridiculous 3.95 multiplier ($10.7 million Friday, $42.3 million weekend) as it crossed the $800 million mark. Rogue One probably won’t do the same, so Hidden Figures should still come out ahead, as Rogue One finishes with about $21 million on the weekend.
Sing
The other big winner from the holiday season, Sing takes a 69.8% hit to $5.1 million on Friday, putting it ever so close to the $200 million mark with $198.8 million. It’ll rebound over Saturday and Sunday, but Sing will still be behind both Hidden Figures and Rogue One. Look for a weekend of $18.3 million.