Get Out Earns $30.5 Million on Oscar Weekend
Blumhouse's Get Out, the Jordan Peele horror/comedy/social commentary, parlayed its glowing critical reception for a stunning $30.5 million Oscar weekend in 2,781 theaters and a very respectable $10,976 per-screen average. The other new films, Lionsgate/Summit's animated flick, Rock Dog, at $3.7 million, fell just outside of the top 10, while the critically-derided inanimate Collide, from Open Road, spun out at $1.53 million in 2,045 theaters for an abysmal $753 per theater.

Get Out, a film where an African-American man notices his girlfriend's family estate may be hiding a sinister secret, had a surprise sneak premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, which set the stage for its critical success. The film maintains a rare 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a healthy 8.1 IMDb rating and an A- on CinemaScore. That means the horror film should see an easy falloff next weekend even as the Groundhog Day YA film, Before I Fall, and the final Hugh Jackman Wolverine film, Logan, hit the screens.

Get Out's success must come as great solace to Peele as it was just last April when Keanu, his comedy with longtime partner Keegan-Michael Key, struggled to a $9.4 million opening in 2,658 theaters, eventually clawing its way to a $20.6 million domestic cume, a total Get Out blew past yesterday, its second day of release.

Tonight, of course, is the Oscars and while Hidden Figures may not win Best Picture it is still the reigning domestic champ among 2016's Best Picture nominees, adding another $5.7 million this weekend for a $152 million domestic tally. Foreign coin is $30M for a worldwide total of $182.8 million.

Don't feel too bad for presumptive Best Picture, Lionsgate's La La Land, though. It added another $4.6 million this weekend bringing its domestic cume to $140.8 million. Lionsgate also now boasts that La La is also its highest grossing film internationally and worldwide—other than the Hunger Games and Twilight franchises—after it added a further $14.4 million from 76 markets. The international and global totals stand at an estimated $228.1 million and $369 million, respectively.

Still the current domestic total for all nine of the 2016 Best Picture nominees is only $656 million versus last year's eight films which racked up $806 million. They, of course, were led by the two massive hits, The Martian ($228 million domestic, $630 worldwide), and The Revenant ($183 million domestic, $532 worldwide).

The new releases last week, Universal's The Great Wall and Fist Fight fell a not unreasonable 52.9% and 47.7% respectively and $34 million and $23 million domestic cumes. Fox's A Cure for Wellness, however, dropped 68.4%, adding a measly $335 thousand to a total $7.4 million domestic cume. That's another penalty stroke legendary director Gore Verbinski will have to take in the back nine of his career. After the massive success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Verbinski has had to find his land legs again. The unfairly maligned but pretty expensive The Lone Ranger was saddled with a $215 million budget and never made it past it tepid $89 million domestic take, though it did do $171 foreign for a $260 million worldwide.

With an estimated $19 million, The LEGO Batman Movie lost the #1 position it held for two weeks, easing 41.8% off of last week for a domestic cume of $133 million and worldwide of $226 million. It won't come close to The LEGO Movie's $469 million worldwide cume in 2014.

Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter Two moved up a spot from last week to third, taking in $9 million for a $74 million domestic gross. Internationally the film took in an additional $13.1 million from 79 markets including France and Mexico this week for a foreign take of $51 million and a worldwide gross of $125 million. It has yet to open in Italy (3/16), Spain (5/5) and Australia (5/11). That worldwide gross is well over Chapter One's foreign take of $45.7 million and worldwide of $88.8 million. Is there an official "franchise" stamp we need to apply?

Universal's Fifty Shades Darker slid another 62% from last week for a weekend performance of $7.7 million and a domestic cume of $103 million. With a reported budget of $55 million and a worlwide cume of $328.3 Universal won't be putting its ballroom masks and riding crops back into storage anytime soon.

Oscar nominated for Best Animated film GKids' My Life as a Zucchini opened in two theaters, one in NY and one in LA, making $28 thousand for a boffo $14 thousand per theater.

Roadside Attraction's Bitter Harvest, a tale set in 1930s Ukraine and starring Max Irons and Lucy Brown, opened in 127 theaters but only managed to make $207 thousand, for a PSA of $1,632. So the Zucchini wins regardless.

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