Girl on the Train rides to No. 1

Mark Wahlberg stars as Mike Williams in Lionsgate’s Deepwater Horizon. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $11.5 million.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Mike Williams in Lionsgate’s Deepwater Horizon. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $11.5 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Following the recent controversy around Fox Searchlight's The Birth of a Nation, fervor for the film about Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion is down -- including its Academy Award prospects. But with the film's release in theaters nationwide last weekend, it might not be down for the entire count.

The picture pulled in about $7 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters. The studio, which expected $7 million to $8 million going into the weekend, is happy with the debut, said Frank Rodriguez, Fox Searchlight's senior vice president of domestic distribution.

Mark Wahlberg stars as Mike Williams in Lionsgate’s Deepwater Horizon. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $11.5 million.

As for the rest of the box office, fellow new release The Girl on the Train from Universal took the top spot with about $24.5 million. It was followed by Fox's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children ($15.1 million), Lionsgate's Deepwater Horizon ($11.5 million), MGM/Columbia's The Magnificent Seven ($9 million) and Warner Bros.' Storks ($8.3 million). Birth of a Nation landed in sixth place, with Lionsgate and CBS Films' new release Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life in seventh with about $7 million.

In Birth, Nate Parker stars as Turner, the real-life slave minister who, inspired by the gospel he taught, led a violent and historic rebellion in Southampton County, Va. The film also stars Aja Naomi King, Armie Hammer and Gabrielle Union.

Its Oscar prospects seem to have withered too. One Hollywood insider who has worked on past Oscar campaigns predicted the film's awards chances will be hurt not only by the controversy surrounding Parker, but by mixed reviews and the movie's lackluster opening.

Rodriguez said they have been toning down some of the studio's hopes, presumably regarding Oscar glory.

Fox Searchlight remained confident in Birth despite the controversy. Regardless of what some already have termed a box-office failure, the picture seems to be performing well with those who see it. The film received an A CinemaScore from audiences, which were overwhelmingly older than 25 (60 percent) and primarily black (50 percent). Forty percent of the audience was white.

Rodriguez said the A CinemaScore is promising and encouraging regarding the picture's future play. "What we can hope for and what we expect is there to be some good word-of-mouth on the film," he said.

"The controversy may or may not have contributed to the film's performance," Rodriguez added.

"I cannot say that it didn't affect it at all, but I don't have a metric," he said. "I don't know how to measure that. It's hard to say. Do we wish the discussion was not always involving the controversy? Sure. But it's there."

Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at comScore, agreed, saying, "It's almost impossible to know whether the controversy had an impact.

"I don't know what this movie would have done if the controversy never came up," he said.

While no break-even point makes a film a success, Rodriguez said, a total of $25 million to $30 million would ensure a solid performance of Birth. Rodriguez thinks the studio is within reach of that, taking into account the film's international rollout potential and home-viewing options.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

  1. The Girl on the Train, Universal, $24,536,265, 3,144 locations, $7,804 average, $24,536,265, one week.

  2. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, 20th Century Fox, $15,141,789, 3,705 locations, $4,087 average, $51,195,272, two weeks.

  3. Deepwater Horizon, Lionsgate, $11,527,027, 3,259 locations, $3,537 average, $38,295,415, two weeks.

  4. The Magnificent Seven, MGM/Columbia, $9,011,682, 3,696 locations, $2,438 average, $75,777,075, three weeks.

  5. Storks, Warner Bros., $8,294,309, 3,608 locations, $2,299 average, $49,962,803, three weeks.

  6. The Birth of a Nation, Fox Searchlight, $7,004,254, 2,105 locations, $3,327 average, $7,004,254, one week.

  7. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, Lionsgate, $6,878,437, 2,822 locations, $2,437 average, $6,878,437, one week.

  8. Sully, Warner Bros., $5,010,340, 3,058 locations, $1,638 average, $113,225,772, five weeks.

  9. Masterminds, Relativity Media, $4,078,715, 3,042 locations, $1,341 average, $12,767,040, two weeks.

  10. Queen of Katwe, Disney, $1,627,313, 1,259 locations, $1,293 average, $5,393,949, three weeks.

  11. Don't Breathe, Columbia-Screen Gems, $1,379,646, 1,066 locations, $1,294 average, $86,951,001, seven weeks.

  12. Suicide Squad, Warner Bros., $1,123,640, 972 locations, $1,156 average, $322,547,564, 10 weeks.

  13. MET Opera: Tristan und Isolde, Fathom Events, $1,080,000, 900 locations, $1,200 average, $1,080,000, one week.

  14. Bridget Jones's Baby, Universal, $843,880, 915 locations, $922 average, $22,804,575, four weeks.

  15. Snowden, Open Road, $743,170, 787 locations, $944 average, $20,206,248, four weeks.

  16. Blair Witch, Lionsgate, $518,292, 668 locations, $776 average, $20,197,601, four weeks.

  17. Sausage Party, Columbia, $471,424, 1,071 locations, $440 average, $97,325,575, nine weeks.

  18. Premam, BlueSky Cinemas, $447,022, 120 locations, $3,725 average, $447,022, one week.

  19. When the Bough Breaks, Columbia-Screen Gems, $443,687, 460 locations, $965 average, $29,309,567, five weeks.

  20. The Secret Life of Pets, Universal, $340,695, 339 locations, $1,005 average, $365,389,630, 14 weeks.

MovieStyle on 10/14/2016

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