Everything is awesome for ‘Lego Batman’ at the box office; at Universal’s ‘Great Wall,’ it’s not so great
A talking building-block toy proved tougher than Matt Damon’s “The Great Wall” at the box office over the four-day Presidents Day weekend, as “The Lego Batman Movie” from Warner Bros. finished first and raked in an estimated $42.5 million in the U.S. and Canada.
The animated “Batman” parody, now in its second week, saw its total domestic gross rise to $107 million. International ticket sales are estimated at about $72 million. That’s for a film with a production budget of about $80 million.
Coming in at No. 2 for the weekend was Universal’s “Fifty Shades Darker,” the sequel inspired by the bestselling E.L. James novels, which dropped sharply from its three-day opening weekend take of $46.6 million. Its four-day holiday weekend gross was $23.3 million, a 50% drop even with the additional day.
Universal’s “The Great Wall,” an epic monster-battle picture directed by Zhang Yimou that Times film critic Kenneth Turan described as “a snore,” opened with $21.7 million in domestic ticket sales. The $150 million film, which stars Matt Damon as a mercenary warrior, has made more than $244 million in foreign markets.
Lionsgate’s assassin flick “John Wick: Chapter Two” starring Keanu Reeves finished fourth with $19.1 million in its second week. Its per-screen average of $6,136 was just 6% below that of “The Great Wall.”
New Line’s comedy “Fist Fight,” starring Ice Cube and Charlie Day, opened with $14.5 million in ticket sales, at the low end of industry projections of $15 million to $20 million heading into the weekend.
But 20th Century Fox’s “Hidden Figures,” a surprise breakout of the season, continued its strong run, finishing sixth and grossing $8.7 million in its ninth weekend of release. The film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae raised its domestic total to $144.2 million.
Rounding out the top 10: The James McAvoy-starring thriller “Split” from Universal with $8.3 million, Universal’s “A Dog’s Purpose” with $7.4 million, Oscar front-runner “La La Land” from Lionsgate with $5.4 million (raising its domestic total to $134.4 million) and Oscar-race surprise “Lion” from the Weinstein Co. with $5.2 million.
Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter »
ALSO
Review: ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ is the best Batman movie since ‘The Dark Knight’
Review: Matt Damon’s ‘The Great Wall’ crumbles in epic fashion
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
