Although Captain America: Civil War became 2016’s first film to gross a billion dollars, it seems unlikely to come close to the first Avengers film on the domestic front. In addition, X-Men: Apocalypse and Neighbors 2 are poised to fall well below their predecessors, and Alice Through the Looking Glass appears to be the first major flop of the summer, despite being the film to push Disney above $4 billion worldwide in 2016. In terms of the types of films being released, this year’s June appears to be one of the more diverse in recent memory, with offerings that include a mockumentary, a historical drama, and a sequel to a 20-year-old blockbuster. During the same time frame last year, Jurassic World and Inside Out broke box office records to make June one of the highest grossing months of 2015. While titles such as Independence Day: Resurgence and Finding Dory stand a good chance of breaking out, this June will likely fall short of last year.The LEGO Batman Movie / The LEGO Batman Movie debuted in first at the domestic box office this weekend, outpacing Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick: Chapter Two with an estimated $55.6 million.
As noted by Variety, the new animated film from Warner Bros., which had a production budget of $80 million, enjoyed the biggest opening of 2017 so far. That said, The LEGO Batman Movie fell short of projections, with some analysts expecting the film to make over $60 million during its first weekend in theaters. For our thoughts on the family-friendly feature, which stars Will Arnett as the Caped Crusader, Michael Cera as Robin and Zach Galifianakis as Joker, read IGN's The LEGO Batman Movie review. Meanwhile, Fifty Shades Darker debuted in second place with an estimated $46.8 million. Universal's sequel didn't capture the same massive audience that its predecessor did, as Fifty Shades of Grey opened to over $80 million when it released in 2015. Placing third was John Wick: Chapter Two. Lionsgate's sequel starring Keanu Reeves earned an estimated $30 million, which is more than double what the first film made during its opening weekend. Rounding out the top five was Split, which, after dominating the box office the three consecutive weeks prior, dropped to fourth with 9.3 million, and Hidden Figures, which came in fifth with $8 million.
The domestic totals for Split and Hidden Figures now stand at $112.3 million and $131.4 million, respectively. Here are the Top 10 weekend box office estimates via comScore: 1. The LEGO Batman Movie $55.6 million 2. Fifty Shades Darker $46.8 million 3. John Wick: Chapter Two $30 million 4. Split $9.3 million 5. Hidden Figures $8 million 6. A Dog's Purpose $7.4 million 7. Rings $5.8 million 8. La La Land $5 million 9. Lion $4.1 million 10. The Space Between Us $1.8 million Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel.“The LEGO Batman Movie” Has No Problem Beating Its Rivals at the Box Office The LEGO Batman Movie John Wick: Chapter 2 The LEGO Batman Movie came out on top this past weekend, as predicted, but numbers were off across the board, as the animated Caped Crusader brought in less than expected and everything else jumped higher. Still, final numbers ultimately made this the best weekend of the year so far with the top twelve bringing in a total of $176.9 million.
Holdover films also dropped less than expected — some less than 35 percent — which certainly helped the weekend’s mass success. Warner Bros. had predicted LEGO Batman to come in around $60 million, so it fell even below industry standards. Still, it doesn’t mean the film performed poorly by any means — it can still contend with several other animated films that opened in the past year, coming in right behind titles like Moana and well beating other films like Sing, Storks, and Kubo and the Two Strings. The fact that it couldn’t be outliers like Finding Dory, Zootopia, or The Secret Life of Pets isn’t exactly its fault. The film has been tracking well with critics and audiences alike and it should continue to perform well going into the holiday weekend coming up and allowing it to make a good-sized dent in its $80 million budget. Worldwide, the film is at $90 million, so there’s still plenty of time for it to become a certified success. The real test will be whether or not it can best The LEGO Movie’s domestic total of $257 million — after all, it wasn’t able to beat its predecessor’s opening.
Moving right along, the two other newcomers of the weekend, Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick: Chapter 2 both overperformed, which certainly must have delighted Universal and Lionsgate, respectively. With Fifty Shades, its loyal fanbase is clearly still dedicated to the franchise, despite what may seem like a general waning interest from the masses at large. It opened about $40 million less than the first film, which was expected, but also shows the franchise plays to its base and not much more. It will also be more curious to see how the film does over the week, especially tomorrow for Valentine’s Day, and over the holiday weekend. The first film dropped 74 percent from its first weekend to its second, but this sequel should be able to fare better in that regard. In 2014, the first John Wick opened with $14.4 million. Less than three years later, its highly anticipated sequel, Chapter 2, doubled that intake, proving the success of the first film and how much fans were looking forward to the sequel.
It was a surprise when the first film earned an 85 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, as no one expected the film to have much of an impact. Still, the passionate response ensured the sequel’s success — just not quite this much. The sequel is nearly to $42 million worldwide and should be able to keep its intake coming. As with the other two films discussed before this one, the real story to look at will be comparing this film to its predecessor. John Wick made $88.7 million worldwide and all eyes will be on whether or not the sequel can replicate that or even possibly do better. Finally, both Split and Hidden Figures continued to do well. In due time, Split’s $112 million domestic total will surpass The Village‘s $114 million and become director M. Night Shyamalan’s fourth-highest domestic grosser. Worldwide, the film is almost to $170 million, making its profit on a $9 million budget truly impressive. With Figures, the film has become the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee of the year and is at $144 million worldwide.