Weekend Box Office: Pride Prejudice and Zombies Loses, Kung Fu Panda Wins Again
by EG
Last weekend's three new movies faced an uphill battle, with strong competition from holdovers and the Super Bowl on Sunday, but even given low expectations, all of the three new wide releases were disappointing in one way or another in their box-office performance.
None of the three new films posed a serious challenge to last week's winner, Kung Fu Panda 3. The animated sequel took second place for the second weekend in a row, earning $21 million for the weekend and nearly doubling the gross of the second-place finisher.
That second-place finisher was Hail Caesar, one of the new releases. The Holloywood satire from Joel and Ethan Coen and starring George Clooney took in $11.4 million, staying in line with predictions. The opening was one of the worst in the Coen brothers' career, though, and the film earned an abysmal C- CinemaScore from audiences, so it is not likely to benefit from positive word-of-mouth in the weeks to come.
The Choice, another new release, edged into the top five, barely, with earnings of $6 million. That was good enough for a fifth-place finished behind The Revenant and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but it was the weakest opening of any film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel.
The week's final new release, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, was also arguably the week's biggest loser. It took in only $5.2 million and landed in sixth place, just ahead of holdover The Finest Hours.