Movies

Box office report: Get Out slays competition with $30.5 million

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Published on February 26, 2017 01:44PM EST

Film Title: Get Out — Photo: Justin Lubin

As members of the film industry heads to the Dolby Theatre for the 89th Academy Awards, audiences are flocking to theaters ahead of Hollywood’s biggest night, elevating Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out to a stellar $30.5 million opening over its first three days in theaters.

The racially charged horror flick amasses its impressive debut just over a month after earning some of the best critical reviews of the year at Sundance, where it had its world premiere in January.

Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, and Catherine Keener, the film’s inherently buzzy concept — an interracial couple retreats to the young woman’s family home amid a mysterious community with a sinister secret — resonated with moviegoers at a time when social and political discourse largely revolves around issues of race.

Marking yet another successful collaboration between Universal and Blumhouse Pictures, Get Out, made on a budget of $4.5 million, notches Blumhouse’s seventh title to bow at a figure in excess of $30 million, and the eighth No. 1 title in its filmography. Earlier this year, Blumhouse fronted the domestic box office for three straight weeks with its M. Night Shyamalan thriller Split.

Universal indicates Get Out‘s Friday-Sunday audience comprised an equal number of men and women (an even 50-50 split), with 39 percent of ticket buyers being African-American; 36 percent identified as Caucasian, while 17 percent were Hispanic. Polled moviegoers gave the film an A- grade on CinemaScore.

Falling to No. 2 for the first time since its theatrical launch two weeks ago, Warner Bros. Animation’s The LEGO Batman Movie dips to an estimated $19 million over its third week in theaters, bringing its North American total to a hair above the $133 million mark.

John Wick: Chapter 2 — a sequel to the 2014 cult classic John Wick — climbs one rung on the domestic ladder, vaulting from No. 4 to No. 3 for a third weekend gross of $9 million. Its haul in the U.S. and Canada stands at $74.4 million.

Rounding out the top five are Matt Damon’s global smash ($300 million in total grosses and counting) The Great Wall, which slides 53 percent to $8.7 million at No. 4, and the romantic sequel Fifty Shades Darker, which descends another 62 percent for an estimated $7.7 million take.

Elsewhere, the Lionsgate animated family flickRock Dogpulls in around $3.7 million from 2,077 sites. The film’s voice cast includes Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, J.K. Simons, Mat Dillon, and Lewis Black.

The week’s final wide newcomer, Open Road’s actioner Collide — starring Felicity Jones, Anthony Hopkins, and Nicholas Hoult — bombs across its first frame in wide release, taking $1.5 million at 2,045 locations for a bleak $752 per-screen average.

Via comScore, overall box office is down roughly 2.7 percent from the same frame last year. Check out the Feb. 24-26 box office estimates below.