‘Ride Along 2’ passes ‘Star Wars’ to Top US Box Office

By Odisha News Insight On Jan 18, 2016 986

Los Angeles, Jan 18: New action comedy movie “Ride Along 2” rose to the peak of the US box office over the weekend as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has finally begun to lose sizzle after four weeks atop the chart. The Universal Pictures film opened in the No. 1 spot this weekend, according to studio estimates, with a $34 million premiere.

Starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, the sequel debuted 18 percent below the $41.5 million three-day start of its 2014 precursor, Xinhua reported.

“Ride Along 2” received a “B+” rating from first-night moviegoers on CinemaScore. While that was a solid score, it was significantly softer than the “A” rating “Ride Along” received on CinemaScore.

“The Revenant,” which holds 12 Academy Award nominations, was in second place with $29.5 million in sales, down 26 percent from last weekend’s sales.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, it went into wide circulation two weeks ago, and grossed an impressive $87.6 million after 10 days of wide release, according to Rentrak. After leading the weekend box office for each of the past four frames, Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” fell to third place this weekend with an estimated three-day take of $25.1 million, 41 percent down from last weekend.

The seventh installment of “Star Wars” passed the $850 million mark this weekend and continues to firm up its position as the highest grossing film of all-time in the US with $851 million through 31 days of release.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” currently runs 72.5 percent ahead of $493.2 million 31-day take of “Avatar” and 44 percent ahead of the $590.7 million 31-day gross of last year’s “Jurassic World”. Globally, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has grossed nearly $1.9 billion.

Rounding out the 10 most-popular films in the US and Canada were “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers” ($16 million), “Daddy’s Home” ($9.3 million), “Norm Of The North” ($6.7 million), “The Forest” ($5.8 million), “The Big Short” ($5.2 million), “Sisters” ($4.4 million) and “The Hateful Eight” ($3.4 million). (IANS)