The merc with a mouth lays waste to the charts, but ladies clearly hit back and put two romantic films firmly next to it.
- 01. DEADPOOL (Incl 3D & Imax)
Only lunatics and blind optimists would have predicted Deadpool‘s success. The movie was a long shot, to say the least, and yet it’s exceeded all (rational) expectations. That said, a first place debut for a comic book movie is normal: Ant-Man debuted at number one and Fantastic Four debuted at number 2, shunted by the critical mass that was Mission Impossible.
- 02. VIR ALTYD
Ignore Leon Schuster’s films and such a high debut for a local movie is very rare. So a 2nd spot debut for this Afrikaans romantic drama is stellar. It also broke the record for the strongest opening of an afrikaans film.
- 03. HOW TO BE SINGLE
Girls out to have fun meets romantic comedy, so this is a raunchy romantic comedy, I guess. How To Be Single‘s strong opening shows how much the market has opened up for female moviegoers, but unfortunately romcoms rarely hold their traction. Just look at the tenth position…
- 04. RIDE ALONG 2
Holy crap, FINALLY Ride Along 2 got kicked off its perch. After equalling Star Wars‘ top spot dominance run last week, it fell four spots. Clearly audiences have had their fill and it will likely be gone after two more weeks.
- 05. DIRTY GRANDPA
It’s a modest two spot fall for Dirty Grandpa, which makes this the best-performing movie for either Robert De Niro or Zack Efron in a long time. Made with $11 million, even its modest $33 million earnings make this a financial hit. But it’s still far behind cinema’s other awful senior, Bad Grandpa.
- 06. THE FINEST HOURS (Incl 3D & Imax)
Chris Pine’s aquatic nightmare took a huge four spot drop, signalling yet another cursed ‘big storm on the sea’ movie. Yes, Ride Along 2 also fell by as much, but at least it made money. The Finest Hours only debuted last week.
- 07. DADDY’S HOME
The Ferrell/Wahlberg train took a small two spot drop, finally moving from the 5th spot it held for two weeks. It may soon overtake Ferrell’s hit Taladega Nights as his 4th biggest earner.
- 08. THE 5TH WAVE
Another catastrophic drop, The 5th Wave collapsed four spots. It has none of the momentum of other teen-lit inspired films, even the crappy ones.
- 09. THE REVENANT (incl Imax)
Three positions down, The Revenant is tying up a very solid time on the top 10. Sure, you can find bigger hits on the chart, but for an adult-themed, 2.5 hour long meditation on revenge, this film broke new box office ground.
- 10. THE CHOICE
Last week I neglected to say that The Choice is another Nicholas Sparks adaptation, because I thought it would be around a bit longer than this. But perched at 10th, this love-conquers-all yarn is already on its way out.
- PLEASE VALIDATE YOUR PARKING
Three debuts at the top conveniently vacate three spots at the bottom. Norm of the North bows out after a few weeks and a lot of critical ire. But at least it had a few weeks to hang around – The Dressmaker and Spotlight both leave after basically just showing their faces.
Last Updated: February 17, 2016
