Box Office Breakdown: 'A Dog's Purpose' Controversy Allows 'Split' to Repeat at Number One

Split easily wins its second weekend in a row dropping only 35% from last week.  M. Night's would-be comeback received a little help a few weeks ago when TMZ posted a scandalous and truly disturbing video allegedly showing animal abuse on the set of A Dog's Purpose.  Before that controversy gained traction, A Dog's Purpose was the film to beat, and it would have easily taken the top stop.  Surprisingly, it still performed relatively well despite the negative press.  Family audiences helped bring the animal reincarnation film's gross up to $18 million over the weekend, which makes back a hefty portion of its reported $22 million budget.  With an ad budget that recently shot it to the top of TV ad spending for films, as reported by Variety, it still has a ways to go before breaking even.  The studio certainly has to be breathing a sigh of relief, though.  Split, on the other hand, has been amazingly profitable from day one.  The James McAvoy thriller had such a modest budget ($9 million), that even taking into account its marketing costs, every dollar it pulls in now is gravy.  At the risk of belaboring the issue, this level of performance is pretty incredible at this point in M Night's career, especially after having made such amazingly terrible choices as a director for so long (Mark Wahlberg as a science teacher?  Really?).

On the Academy Awards front, several contenders saw huge jumps this weekend because of the announced nominations.  La La Land, with a record-tying fourteen nominations, jumped up 45% compared to last weekend, and with about $220 million worldwide and no signs of slowing down, the film is starting to look like a genuine blockbuster.  Although most didn't make the top ten, every film with six or more nominations saw double or triple digit growth in box office, including Arrival, Moonlight, Lion, Manchester by the Sea, and Hacksaw Ridge.  The Oscar boost is alive and well, proving that the Academy still has some influence despite the growing number of vocal naysayers. 

A few other notes:

• The new Resident Evil: The Final Chapter movie follows in the footsteps of Underworld: Blood Wars in posting the lowest-grossing opening weekend of its franchise history, all but guaranteeing the series will stick to the promise of its subtitle.
• Although it didn't necessarily see an Oscar boost, Hidden Figures still performed great, seeing only a 10% drop from last weekend.  Its $104 million domestic total puts it neck and neck with La La Land's slightly better $106 million. 
• The McConaissance faltered a little this weekend as the only other notable new release, Matthew McConaughey's drama Gold, came in tenth.  I love his recent burst of left-field creativity, but I hope he doesn't go the way of Johnny Depp and start substituting makeup for performance.

Check out the full three day estimated top ten:*

1. Split - $25.6 million
2. A Dog's Purpose - $18.2 million
3. Hidden Figures - $14 million
4. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - $13.6 million
5. La La Land - $12.2 million
6. xXx: Return of Xandar Cage - $8.6 million
7. Sing - $6.4 million
8. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - $5.2 million
9. Monster Trucks - $4.1 million
10. Gold - $3.4 million

Wide-releases coming next week: Rings, The Space Between Us.

*Box office stats courtesy of boxofficemojo.com.