Logan slashes box office rivals

Hugh Jackman stars as Logan/Wolverine in Logan. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $88.4 million.
Hugh Jackman stars as Logan/Wolverine in Logan. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $88.4 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Twentieth Century Fox's Logan may be Hugh Jackman's final portrayal of the iconic X-Men character Wolverine, but the man with the adamantium claws isn't going out without a fight.

The film earned an estimated $88.4 million from Friday to Monday, obliterating its box-office competition and relegating Jordan Peele's socially conscious horror film Get Out to second place, despite earning $28.2 million, just a 22 percent drop from opening weekend.

Directed by James Mangold, Logan adapts the Old Man Logan comic, following an aged Wolverine and ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart) as they cross paths with a young mutant who will change their lives.

The R-rated film's take is the biggest opening weekend of 2017 and the fourth-best R-rated debut of all time.

According to the studio, the key to the movie's success comes in the execution of its vision, blending the visceral with the personal.

"[Mangold] and [Jackman] came in long ago and pitched their version of the film, that was definitely going to be R-rated, that it was going to be a very personal story, and that's exactly the movie that we have," said Chris Aronson, head of domestic distribution for Fox. "I think they did a beautiful job of telling that story, and both critics and audiences have responded."

In addition to its domestic take, Logan earned an estimated $152.5 million internationally, according to the studio.

The big weekend for Logan comes despite the picture's relatively modest superhero budget, "a mere $97 million," not including marketing costs. In comparison, 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse was budgeted at $178 million and made just $79.8 million in its four-day Memorial Day weekend debut.

Lionsgate's The Shack outpaced expectations to bring in about $16.2 million in its opening weekend, good enough for third at the box office. An adaptation of the Christian novel of the same name, it stars Sam Worthington as a man who meets three iterations of God after the death of his daughter.

Warner Bros.' The LEGO Batman Movie landed in fourth place, with the animated comedy adding $11.7 million to its four-week haul, bringing its domestic take to about $149 million.

Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter 2 landed at No. 5 in its fourth week of release. Keanu Reeves' quietly competent killer brought in $4.8 million for a total of $83 million.

The weekend's other new release, Open Road's teen drama Before I Fall, bombed at No. 6, earning about $4.7 million for its eponymous adaptation of the novel about a girl (Zoey Deutch) repeatedly forced to relive the final day of her life.

The Oscars, meanwhile, continue to drive audiences to the theaters.

Fox's Hidden Figures, a film centered on the black female mathematicians working at NASA in the 1960s, finished in seventh place with $3.8 for the weekend and $158.8 million domestically. Lionsgate's hit Hollywood musical La La Land may have lost the Best Picture Oscar, but took in about $3 million for 10th place and about $146 million overall.

The Oscar best-picture winner Moonlight had its widest release yet, appearing on 1,564 screens. It turned in its biggest weekend, too, with about $2.3 million. That accounts for roughly 10 percent of the movie's total domestic haul of $25.2 million.

Moonlight, made for just $1.5 million, is also out on DVD and on-demand. Indie distributor A24 said it will be its highest-grossing release in its five-year existence. Moonlight also ranks fourth on iTunes.

"That's a true Oscar halo effect in full view," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. "Usually the biggest bounce comes from the nominations. But this film hadn't made a ton of money. A24 smartly expanded into more theaters, and it really worked for them."

Barry Jenkins' drama is nevertheless one of the least widely seen best-picture winners. Only Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker ($17 million) earned less at the domestic box office.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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

  1. Logan, 20th Century Fox, $88,411,916, 4,071 locations, $21,717 average, $88,411,916, one week.

  2. Get Out, Universal, $28,236,285, 2,938 locations, $9,611 average, $78,079,925, two weeks.

  3. The Shack, Lionsgate, $16,172,119, 2,888 locations, $5,600 average, $16,172,119, one week.

  4. The LEGO Batman Movie, Warner Bros., $11,702,364, 3,656 locations, $3,201 average, $148,684,165, four weeks.

  5. John Wick: Chapter Two, Lionsgate, $4,804,238, 2,475 locations, $1,941 average, $82,945,210, four weeks.

  6. Before I Fall, Open Road, $4,690,214, 2,346 locations, $1,999 average, $4,690,214, one week.

  7. Hidden Figures, 20th Century Fox, $3,826,330, 1,582 locations, $2,419 average, $158,766,769, 11 weeks.

  8. The Great Wall, Universal, $3,627,020, 2,314 locations, $1,567 average, $41,388,325, three weeks.

  9. Fifty Shades Darker, Universal, $3,558,020, 2,205 locations, $1,614 average, $109,985,335, four weeks.

  10. La La Land, Lionsgate, $2,986,489, 1,411 locations, $2,117 average, $145,695,851, 13 weeks.

  11. Fist Fight, Warner Bros., $2,860,196, 2,303 locations, $1,242 average, $28,286,371, three weeks.

  12. Rock Dog, Lionsgate, $2,300,973, 2,077 locations, $1,108 average, $6,735,271, two weeks.

  13. Moonlight, A24, $2,300,940, 1,564 locations, $1,471 average, $25,153,321, 20 weeks.

  14. Lion, The Weinstein Co., $2,125,815, 1,260 locations, $1,687 average, $46,516,365, 15 weeks.

  15. Split, Universal, $2,091,660, 1,126 locations, $1,858 average, $134,044,560, seven weeks.

  16. A Dog's Purpose, Universal, $1,760,665, 1,494 locations, $1,178 average, $60,218,235, six weeks.

  17. Table 19, Fox Searchlight, $1,580,648, 868 locations, $1,821 average, $1,580,648, one week.

  18. Moana, Disney, $633,216, 321 locations, $1,973 average, $246,885,618, 15 weeks.

  19. A United Kingdom, Fox Searchlight, $632,123, 271 locations, $2,333 average, $1,814,372, four weeks.

  20. I Am Not Your Negro, Magnolia Pictures, $475,801, 235 locations, $2,025 average, $5,553,769, five weeks.

MovieStyle on 03/10/2017

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