Box Office Weekend: Ride Along 2 Finally Derails Star Wars Juggernaut

It took the weekend, but not the hearts of critics. Ride Along 2, the sequel to the surprise comedy hit of 2014 (though equally lambasted by critics), opened to lower numbers than the previous film with an estimated $34 million, enough to keep away The Revenant (estimated $29.5 million), which still flags behind its costs despite getting good business here and overseas. However, Star Wars: The Force Awakens still looms large in its third-place finish of an estimated $25.1 million. Far and away the top domestic hit of all-time, it may still lose out the worldwide honor to Avatar, still needing a billion in revenue to topple that film, but time will tell if the seventh film in the storied franchise has the force necessary to do it.

A more focused entry from Michael Bay, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is doing better critically than his Transformers films, but at an estimated $16 million opening it has a lot of work to do to make up its costs ($50 million, in this case), a feat likely accomplished by Daddy’s Home. 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. However, it appears Norm of the North is destined for a bashing not seen since Eddie Murphy released A Thousand Words. Almost universally panned, the animated tale of a polar bear trying to save his home debuted at a paltry estimated $6.7 million; not good numbers for any animated film, even one released outside of a major studio.

The Forest has become a modest success, an estimated $5.8 million bringing in $21.1 million on a $10 million budget, while The Big Short has brought in an estimated $5.2 million, and $50.5 million in domestic earnings (with some overseas dollars giving it modest success as well). Sisters is continuing on strong with an estimated $4.4 million bringing a five week run to $81.9 million, while the acclaimed The Hateful Eight has stalled out, an estimated $3.4 million adding to a $48 million total. Despite Oscar nods, the film is his worst performing film since Grindhouse, though it has performed far better comparatively, with the similarly acclaimed Grindhouse achieving only $25 million on a $67 million budget.

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Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."

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