Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Box office hits and misses: ‘Hidden Figures’ knocks off ‘Rogue One’ (Updated)

box office jan 9 2017 hidden figures
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has proven itself to be a box-office juggernaut, but the movie faced some tough competition this week, and was ultimately nudged out of the top spot by Hidden Figures.

The Star Wars stand-alone feature was bumped to second place by Hidden Figures — which tells the true story of the African-American mathematicians who helped NASA launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit in 1962 — by a margin of less than $1 million. While the numbers were down across the board due to a winter storm that crippled many of the southern states in the U.S., people are clearly enamored with both projects, which received positive reviews from professional critics and general audiences alike.

Despite losing the weekend, Rogue One moved up the various box-office charts and inched closer to becoming the highest-grossing film of 2016 domestically.

After sliding into second place for the year last week, Rogue One is now just $9 million away from the $486.2 million that Finding Dory earned over its 25-week run last year. That fact is even more impressive when you consider that Rogue One has only been in theaters four weeks so far.

# Title Weekend U.S. Total Worldwide Total
1. Hidden Figures $22.8M $24.7M $24.7M
2. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $22M  $477.2M  $914.3M
3. Sing $19.5M $213.3M $356.8M
4. Underworld: Blood Wars $13.1M $13.1M $55.2M
5. La La Land $10M $51.6M $85.7M
6. Passengers $8.8M $80.8M $185.4M
7. Why Him? $6.5M $48.5M $66.3M
8. Moana $6.4M $225.3M $450M
9. Fences $4.7M $40.6M $40.6M
10. Assassin’s Creed $3.8 $49.5M $99.8M

The lone new release in the weekend’s top ten movies was Underworld: Blood Wars, the fifth film in the supernatural action franchise led by actress Kate Beckinsale. Like many other movie series of that genre (the Resident Evil films, for example), the Underworld films have typically fared better overseas, and that continues to be the case with Blood Wars, which debuted to just $13.1 million domestically, but added $42 million to that total from screenings outside the United States. While those aren’t big numbers for typical wide releases, Blood Wars only cost $35 million to make, so it’s not all bad news for fans of the series.

Among the rest of the week’s movies, Passengers continued its underwhelming run, but things could change when the film finally opens in China — the world’s second-largest movie market — next weekend.

As is usual for this time of year, next week is another relatively quiet one for new releases. The films debuting in theaters include the weird, family friendly creature feature Monster Trucks, the horror movie The Bye Bye Man, the Jamie Foxx police thriller Sleepless, and the ensemble drama 100 Streets, which features Idris Elba in a leading role.

Updated 1/15/2017 by Rick Marshall with final box-office reports, which gave Hidden Figures the win over Rogue One. 

Editors' Recommendations

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
The 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now
A woman points a gun and stares.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with nearly 250 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix? Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over a recent seven-day period to keep subscribers in the loop regarding its most popular titles.

Zack Snyder is back in the top 10 with Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, the second film in his space opera series. Despite Snyder's popularity, the new Rebel Moon film could not unseat What Jennifer Did, which is the No. 1 movie for the second straight week. New additions to the top 10 include the comedy Knocked Up at No. 8 and the action movie Anna at No. 2. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from April 15 to April 21, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Read more
Deadpool & Wolverine: Everything we know about the film formerly known as Deadpool 3
Deadpool and Wolverine stand together in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In retrospect, we should have suspected that Deadpool & Wolverine wouldn't keep its most famous co-star out of the title. In 2022, Ryan Reynolds coaxed Hugh Jackman into reprising his role as Wolverine for the first time since 2017's Logan. Once that happened, the name Deadpool 3 didn't fully convey how monumental this film would be.

So Marvel Studios has officially retitled it as Deadpool & Wolverine. Jackman has also humorously rebranded the film as Wolverine & [expletive], which would make this R-rated flick a lot harder to market!

Read more
5 years ago, Game of Thrones aired its last great episode. Here’s why it still holds up
Jamie knights Brienne in episode 2 of Game of Thrones season 8.

Many fans would likely agree that Game of Thrones went out not with a bang, but a profound whimper. After dominating pop culture for nearly 10 years, the hit HBO series concluded with a trio of episodes that were universally reviled by both fans and critics alike. The show's lackluster, ham-fisted finale led to its popularity seemingly vanishing into thin air. In the five years since it aired, time hasn't been kind to Game of Thrones season 8.

To this day, many people still discuss the series' final season with a mix of bitterness and disbelief, and those fans won't find any disagreement about the quality of Game of Thrones' last few chapters here. As disappointing as its eighth season remains, though, April 21 marked the five-year anniversary of its noteworthy second episode, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The fan-favorite installment ranks not only as its season's best chapter, but also as the last great episode that Game of Thrones ever produced.

Read more