Saturday morning box office review: SPLIT OVER RINGS!

Paramount’s Rings and STX’s teen romance The Space Between Us which are respectively opening to $12.8M in second and $3.8M in seventh..

The entire concept of RINGS appears to be oddly disjointed anyway.. it has been 15 years since the original VHS related horror flick. The mess of this film attempts to bind together early century technology with modern file sharing, and what could have been a clever homage to some other time and age turns into a clunky pile of 21st century junk..

But guess what’s first? Pretty exciting news for an M Night Shyalaman fan like myself: SPLIT is still in the lead box – three weeks now and running..

And it’s actually the first title in Shyamalan’s resume to hold the No. 1 spot at the B.O. for three weeks in a row since 1999’s The Sixth Sense!  Talk about old style century tech getting its revenge!

Good show M NIGHT..

SPLIT was a good film with (to me) not the greatest ending of M Night’s career.. but he was setting Philadelphia up for a sequel whether the King of Prussia mall is ready for it or not..  Bruce Willis is.

Late night estimates put Split at $14.7M for the weekend, and a running cume by Sunday of $98.8M, -8% behind Sixth Sense at the same point in time..

Prognosticators don’t think that SPLIT outshines SENSE, as a matter of fact by Valentine’s Day plenty of other films–included animated and a lot of SHADES of gray–will fill theaters..

The predictions for the final tallies: 

1.) Split (UNI/Blumhouse) 3,373 theaters (+174)  /$4.8M Fri (-39%)/3-day: $14.7M (-43%)/Total: $98.8M/Wk 3

2.) Rings (Par) 2,931 theaters /$5.2M Fri. (includes $800K previews)/3-day: $12.8/Wk 1

3.) Hidden Figures (Fox) 3,401 theaters (+50)/$3M Fri (-20%)   /3-day: $10.4M (-26%)/Total: $119.7M/Wk 7

4.) A Dog’s Purpose (UNI/Amblin/Walden) 3,178 theaters   (+120)/$2.8M Fri (-46%)  /3-day: $10.1m (-45%)/Total: $32.1/Wk 2

5.) La La Land (Lionsgate) 3,236 (+100) /$2.3M Fri (-31%)/3-day:$8.2m (-33%)/Total:$119.1M/ Wk 9

6.) Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (SONY) 3,104 theaters  (0) /$1.36M Fri (-73%) / 3-day: $4M (-71%)/Total: $21.4M/Wk 2

7.) The Space Between Us (STX) 2,812 theaters   /$1.48M Fri. (includes $170K previews)/3-day: $3.8M/Wk 1

8/9) Sing (ILL/UNI), 2,293 theaters (-409) /$905K Fri.(-33%) /3-day cume: $3.75M (-41%)/Total: $262.6M/Wk 7

Lion (TWC) 1,405 theaters  (+830) /$1.1K Fri (+83%) /3-day: $3.75M (+63%)/Total: $24.4M/Wk 11

10.) xXx: The Return Xander Cage (PAR/REV) 2,478 theaters (-1,178)  /$1.1M Fri (-50%)/3-day: $3.6M (-58%)/Total: $39.9M/ Wk 3