‘The Revenant’ braves the blizzard with $16M at box office

“The Revenant” was the most-popular movie in North America this weekend, with an estimated $16 million dollar in ticket sales.

Winter Storm Jonas shut down theaters Saturday in New York City, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, cutting the nation’s overall moviegoing for the day by as much as 10% with as many as 400 locations affected. Studio executives said the storm had a major effect on business.

Second was “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, which was narrowly edged out with US$14.3 million, for a total of a whopping US$879.3 million since release and extending its all-time record at the North American box office. First, The Revenant crossed the $100 million mark on Wednesday, its 13th day of wide release, and for a film that is as bleak as The Revenant is, that’s a very strong pace. But that was better than last weekend’s top earner Ride Along 2 which dropped more than 60% from last weekend down to third place with $12 million.

Zac Efron and Robert De Niro’s R-rated, Spring Break comedy ‘Dirty Grandpa sputtered into fourth place. “The Force Awakens”, with $1.94 billion globally to date, will likely cross $2 billion in the next week.

The horror film The Boy rounded out the top five with $11.26 million in its opening weekend, pulling a heavy Latino (41%) and female (62%) audience.

“Jonas had an impact on what would have already have been some bland January openings, including Dirty Grandpa”, says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations “The Boy cost 10 million, so it will be fine”.

Director William Brent Bell’s The Boy, the third release from STX Entertainment, grossed an estimated $4.4 million Friday for a projected $10.5 million weekend. “Honestly, I expected Revenant to be No. 1, but I had it doing $19 million, not $16 million”.

Dirty Grandpa did not offer advance screenings for critics and was beat up severely in reviews. That said, it could cut any chance of legs “Ride Along 2” may have had. The Boy debuted with $3.9 million and could also see it spot on the charts change by the end of the weekend. The Sony/LStar Capital film is based on the YA novel of the same name and stars Chloe Grace Moretz. The film is now creeping ever closer to $900 million in the USA alone, but may have more of a struggle to reach $1 billion.