News: February 12-14 Weekend Box Office Numbers

by Ken Miyamoto on February 14, 2016

Deadpool blew away all opening weekend predictions and decimated the Valentine's and President's Day weekend box office with an estimated $135 million three-day weekend. It broke Fifty Shades of Grey's previous February opening weekend record by nearly $45 million based on estimates. Beyond that, the largest opening for an R-rated film was previously $91.7 million, set by The Matrix Reloaded in 2003.

On top of that, this is the largest opening weekend ever for 20th Century Fox. Their previous record was $108.4 million, held by Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (although that film did not open on Thursday evening, which garnered Deadpool about $50 million).

By Monday evening, the final actuals could possibly amount to $150 million four-day weekend.

Another exciting record that Deadpool has broken is the fact that this is the largest opening weekend for a first-time director — Tim Miller. The previous record holder was Chris Miller, director of Shrek the Third, which opened with $121.6 million back in 2007. As far as live action films are concerned, Robert Stromberg held the previous record with the $69.4 million opening for Maleficent.

Overseas, Deadpool brought in a whopping $125 million from 61 international markets. This is the third highest grossing international opening for Fox ever. Among the accolades, the film scored the largest industry opening in Russia with $12.4 million as well as the largest Fox opening in 13 other markets including Australia ($10m); Taiwan ($8.25m); Brazil ($5.9m); Hong Kong ($3.8m); and Malaysia ($2.9m). Overall there may be an estimated $260.1 million worldwide debut for the this film.

Kung Fu Panda 3 delivered with a stellar 7.5% drop, coming in second with an estimated $19.6 million. Fox is expecting a $26 million four-day as the film's domestic cume is now up to $93.9 million.

New Line and MGM's How to be Single is performing a little below expectations, bringing in an estimated $18.7 million for the three-day weekend and expected to finish with just over $20 million for the four-day. Depending upon its staying power, it should end with a respectable but none-too-special $50-$60 million.

Zoolander 2, which opened with an estimated $15.6 million, is almost exactly the same as the $15.5 million opening for the first film, which went on to make just over $45 million back in 2001. The first Zoolander dropped only 38.7% in its second weekend and if the sequel can manage something similar it may be able to top its predecessor, with an overall domestic run anywhere from $42-49 million seeming most likely at this point.

Michael Moore's latest documentary, Where to Invade Next, opened with an estimated $933,240 for a $3,030 per theater average.

The Revenant edged out Hail, Caesar! for the fifth slot, bringing in an estimated $6.9 million as the Coens' latest dipped 42% for a $6.5 million second weekend.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens fell out of the weekend top five for the first time since releasing back on December 18. The film took seventh place this weekend with an estimated $6.1 million as its domestic cume is now up to $914.8 million and its worldwide returns totaling more than $2.026 billion.

New releases next Friday include the faith-based feature Risen from Sony; Focus will bring the Jesse Owens biopic Race to approximately 2,300 theaters; and A24 offers a wide release of their much buzzed about period horror feature The Witch.

February 12-14, 2016 Weekend Box Office Top Ten

1 Deadpool $135,050,000 ($135,050,000)
2 Kung Fu Panda 3 $19,650,000 ($93,912,387)
3 How to Be Single $18,750,000 ($18,750,000)
4 Zoolander 2 $15,650,000 ($15,650,000)
5 The Revenant $6,900,000 ($159,164,599)
6 Hail, Caesar! $6,590,000 ($21,354,970)
7 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $6,194,000 ($3,422 $914,838,964)
8 The Choice $5,250,000 ($13,259,551)
9 Ride Along 2 $4,130,000 ($82,661,235)
10 The Boy $2,913,000 ($30,778,587)