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Why didn’t Rings work? Paramount and partners made a terrible movie. The threequel earned only three positive reviews out of a possible 55, leaving the film with a 5% fresh rating from critics. Cinemascores were the same. The score for Rings came in at terrible-even-for-horror score at C minus, as even something like Resident Evil: The Final Chapter earned a B. Rings is going to collapse fast, as oddly enough, Gore Verbinski, director of the first Ring movie, brings out the horror title A Cure for Wellness from Fox.

Third is A Dog’s Purpose, and after opening to $18 million amongst a whole bunch of controversy, it cools off this week against less negative talk. This weekend, Purpose earned $10.8 million, and fell 41%. That puts the $22 million picture beyond its pre-marketing budget, as it has a domestic gross of $32.9 million.

Fourth is Hidden Figures, which is one of the lone stars of the weekend. The small, $25 million film from Fox pulled in another $10.1 million and declined only 28%. While it's true that a film like Hidden Figures might be less impacted by the Super Bowl compared to a film like American Sniper, this hold is still massive, as the SAG Award winner only lost 11% of its audience last weekend. Now, after 43 days of various sizes of release, Hidden Figures has hauled in $119.4 million against that small $25 million budget. Its added a couple of million overseas so far, and goes wider over there this coming weekend.

La La Land stays in fifth this weekend, earning $7.5 million. It sees a bigger drop than Hidden Figures, as the musical falls 39% compared to last weekend. Both films have earned similar amounts domestically, with La La Land now at $118.3 million, but the Lionsgate musical is dominating the competition overseas, picking up $150 million there so far.

Sixth is Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and like the last Underworld flick, this one is disappearing fast. After a $13.6 million opening last weekend, the latest Evil earned only $4.5 million and plunged 67%. The overseas sales, currently at $96 million, will bail out the $40 million production.

Seventh is Sing. The Illumination Entertainment release earned another $4.1 million this weekend, and fell 36%. The domestic total has reached $262.9 million, and the overseas is approaching $225 million.

Eighth is the Weinsteins' Lion, their last hope at Oscar glory amidst financial embarrassment. TWC expanded Lion from 575 theaters to 1,405, and the result was decent, with Lion earning $4 million, an uptick from last weekend of 71%. A first feature award at the DGA’s for Garth Davis may help with momentum, but this smaller drama has already amassed $24.7 million domestically and $14 million overseas, against a budget of only $12 million.

Ninth is The Space Between Us, a nice-sounding teen drama, but it completely failed to connect with anyone this weekend, young or old. The usually very successful STX couldn’t get this one off the ground, as the film earned only $3.8 million from 2,812 screens. That means we have another entry on the all time futility chart, as Johnny Depp’s Mortdecai was the 20th worst opener ever on more than 2,500 screens at $4.2 million. The Space Between Us cost $30 million to make, but STX sold off foreign and other rights to reduce their impact down to less than $5 million plus marketing costs. Reviews were terrible at 18% fresh, but the Cinemascore was better, coming in at A minus.

Tenth is xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and his prompt dismissal. This weekend, Xander Cage earned only $3.7 million after taking in $8.6 million last weekend (-57%). The $85 million release has now earned only $40 million domestically, but at least has $112 million from overseas venues.

Robert De Niro’s The Comedian is a disaster. The Sony Pictures Classics film earned only $1.1 million from 848 screens this weekend. I don’t have budget data, but this one will carry a big loss and end up on Netflix some day.

Overall the top 12 films earned $81.1 million, about the same as last year when the 12 could only pull in $82 million. Next weekend's openers include some potential heavy hitters as three sequels open. Fifty Shades Darker opens from Universal, John Wick: Chapter 2 debuts, and so does The LEGO Batman Movie.

Top Weekend Box Office for 2/3/17-2/5/17 (Estimates)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Split	Universal	$14,584,485	- 43%	$98,700,000
2	Rings	Paramount	$13,000,000	New	$13,000,000
3	A Dog's Purpose	Universal	$10,824,000	- 41%	$32,926,000
4	Hidden Figures	Fox	$10,100,000	- 28%	$119,402,000
5	La La Land	Lionsgate	$7,450,000	- 39%	$118,306,924
6	Resident Evil: the Final Chapter	Sony	$4,500,000	- 67%	$21,850,000
7	Sing	Universal	$4,080,000	- 36%	$262,907,000
8	Lion	Weinstein Co.	$4,006,000	+ 71%	$24,711,674
9	The Space Between Us	STX Entertainment	$3,820,000	New	$3,820,000
10	Xxx3: the Return of Xander Cage	Paramount	$3,500,000	- 59%	$40,000,000
11	Rogue One: a Star Wars Story	Disney	$2,933,000	- 44%	$524,642,512
12	Monster Trucks	Paramount	$2,250,000	- 46%	$31,250,000
	Also Opening/Notables
	The Comedian	Sony Classics	$1,107,710	New	$1,121,567
	Chapter & Verse	Paladin	$32,713	New	$32,713
	Mr. Gaga	Abramorama	$24,685	New	$33,963
	Gold	Weinstein Co.	$1,450,000	- 58%	$6,221,465
	Un Padre No Tan Padre	Lionsgate	$435,000	- 56%	$1,637,509
	The Salesman	Cohen Media Group	$225,000	+ 217%	$325,000
	The Founder	Weinstein Co.	$1,515,000	- 42%	$9,911,805
	The Red Turtle	Sony Classics	$75,357	+ 4%	$235,249
	20th Century Women	A24	$483,230	- 47%	$4,789,758
	Paterson	Bleecker Street	$179,652	+ 5%	$1,049,878
	Toni Erdmann	Sony Classics	$103,302	+ 8%	$528,079
	Patriots Day	Lionsgate	$1,145,000	- 59%	$30,255,974
	Fences	Paramount	$1,200,000	- 17%	$52,650,000
	Manchester By the Sea	Roadside Attractions	$1,300,000	- 37%	$43,750,000
	Arrival	Paramount	$800,000	- 46%	$98,650,000
	Moonlight	A24	$1,234,300	- 17%	$19,639,549
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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