On Wednesday,Star Wars: The Force Awakensbecame North America’shighest-grossing movie of all time, overtakingAvatarin only 20 days. But by Friday the box office behemoth was itself overtaken, and by a somewhat unlikely challenger.The Revenant, from directorAlejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, caught many by surprise with its nationwide expansion. The survival drama, starringLeonardo DiCaprioandTom Hardy, earned an estimated $14.4 million on Friday, including $2.3 million from Thursday previews. That was more than enough to sendStar Warsto second place and indicates a weekend take of about $38 million – doublingThe Revenant’s pre-release projection of $19 million.
The Revenantoriginally opened over Christmas weekend in four locations and earned an impressive per-theatre average of $118,640. But as we all know, a strong run in limited release is no guarantee of box office success when a film opens wider.The Grand Budapest Hotelclaimed 2014’s best per-screen average in 4 locations, only to see that average drop precipitously as the film neared 1,000 screens. The best counter example isAmerican Sniper, which set a new box office record for January when it expanded from four theatres to 3,555 one year ago.
Clearly,The Revenantis opening closer to theAmerican Sniperside of the equation, aided bystrong reviewsand four Golden Globe nominations. In fact, Friday’s strong showing is casting doubt on whetherThe Force Awakenswill be able to hold on to first place for a fourth frame. The current weekend projection forStar Warsis $40 million – a steeper drop than originally anticipated. It would only take a little extra momentum forThe Revenantto take first place on the weekend chart. I honestly don’t expect that to happen, but I am often incorrect. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.
The only new wide release this weekend isThe Forest, distributed by Focus Features. The PG-13 thriller, starringGame of ThronesstarNatalie Dormer, also appears to be exceeding expectations. From 2,451 locations,The Forestearned an estimated $4.9 million on Friday. That suggests a weekend total of at least $11 million, beating the $9 million that was originally projected.
Here’s Friday’s top five, based on studio estimates:
The Revenant
$14,400,000
The Force Awakens
$10,760,000
The Forest
$4,975,000
Daddy’s Home
$4,200,000
$2,260,000
