‘Star Wars’ holds top spot at China box office, hits $100 million

Amid outrage over a lack of diversity among Oscar nominees, “Ride Along 2”, aimed squarely at black and Hispanic moviegoers, arrived to a robust $34 million in weekend ticket sales.

Coming in #4 domestically, Michael Bay’s patriotic themed 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi opened to an estimated $20-M from 2,389 theaters.

Paramount’s “Daddy’s Home”, starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, landed in fifth place in its fourth weekend of release, earning $9.3 million. The other new release in the top 10, the animated Norm of the North opened to a per-screen average of $2,837 and finished with $6.84 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens won the foreign race overall with $47.3-M, pushing the blockbuster’s total to $1.86-B.

The seventh installment of “Star Wars” passed the 850 million dollars mark this weekend and is continuing to firm up its position as the highest grossing film of all-time in North America with 851 million dollars through 31 days of release. The comedy sequel, which cost $40 million to make, came in below the original, which made $48.6 million over the same holiday weekend two years ago. The incident, which result in the death of an American ambassador, remains politically controversial and one Central Intelligence Agency spokesperson has even criticised 13 Hours for distorting of true events on the ground. After an excellent opening, Tarantino’s eighth film fell more than 60 percent in its second week to $1.5 million. “Creed, ‘ a spin-off to the ‘Rocky” series, has grossed $136 million worldwide since debuting in November. After scoring 12 Oscar nominations it would seem the Alejandro González Iñárritu survival epic will be a box office hit as well as a critical darling.

All that being said, “Ride Along 2” sits at right about 14% on Rotten Tomatoes – so maybe Redbox it.

The Forest followed in 7 place with an estimated $5.7 million. Ride Along 2 may struggle to reach $100 million due to its smaller than anticipated opening.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s Sisters finally slipped some, down four spots to #9 with $4.4 million (four-day total of $5.1 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).

This is nearly £3 million more than the previous record-holder, Titanic. The original Ride Along finished with $134.9 million by the end of its run.