Weekend Box Office: Revenant Wins the Snowy Weekend
by EG
In the eastern third of the United States this past weekend, moviegoers had to trudge through a major snowstorm to get to theaters, and in many places theaters shut down because of the weather. Ticket sales were consequently down across the board, but The Revenant managed to do good business anyway and won the weekend for the first time since its release.
The Revenant took the top spot after spending the previous two weekends at number two. The film earned $16 million for the weekend, outpacing the persistent Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which took in $14.6 million in its sixth weekend of release. Third place went to last week's winner, Ride Along 2; that film faded significantly this weekend and took in just $13 million.
The week's three new releases took fourth through sixth places. Dirty Grandpa came in fourth with $11.5 million, The Boy was fifth with $11.3 million, and The 5th Wave was sixth with $10.7 million. Those results were in line with expectations for Dirty Grandpa, but the performance of The 5th Wave was disappointing given that the film was intended as the first installment in a new young-adult franchise. The Boy, however, made back its modest production budget with its respectable first-weekend take.