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‘Ride Along 2’ passes ‘Star Wars’ to top N. American box office
Posted On Jan 25 2016
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This photo provided by Disney/Lucasfilm shows stormtroopers in a scene from the new film, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.
The seventh installment of the space epic created by George Lucas generated 658.9 million yuan (S$143.8 million) at 14:20 pm local time on Tuesday, after debuting in China earlier this month, according to researcher Entgroup Inc.
Horror film The Forest was down three spots to #7 in its second weekend with $5.8 million, giving it a typical 55% drop from its opening weekend. The movie opens in US theaters on January 15, 2016. Ride Along 2 made $7 million less compared to the original Ride Along.
The Force Awakens placed third with US$25.1 million, boosting its global take to US$1.86 billion, the third highest ever after Avatar and Titanic. The four-day weekend estimate is $31 million. It added $2.7 million internationally for a $42.2 million worldwide start. With its budget still unknown, the comedy brought in an estimated $9.3 million and an impressive $129.3 million domestically, making it the second-highest earning film of the top ten. The animated film about a polar bear who is displaced from his Arctic home and makes his way to New York City, should do $8.8 million worth of business over the four-day span. To survive for 16 weeks at No. 1, The Force Awakens would have faced stiff competition from the family-friendly Kung Fu Panda 3 (Jan. 29 release), the geek-friendly Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 25) and the just-announced, surprise Cloverfield “blood relative” 10 Cloverfield Lane (March 11).
The weekend box office was $156.7 million, down 37% from last year’s massive $203.2 million. A $75 million finish is still a possibility. That was enough to push it past $50 million. It crossed $81 million and remains on pace to cross $90 million.
Closing out the top ten was Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, down four spots in its third weekend with $3.4 million (no four-day numbers available). Its $47 million total is somewhat disappointing when compared to director Quentin Tarentino’s previous effort Django Unchained which finished with $162 million.
