Box office: Risen drops, Gods of Egypt flops, and Deadpool becomes the 3rd-biggest R-rated movie ever worldwide

Box office: Risen drops, Gods of Egypt flops, and Deadpool becomes the 3rd-biggest R-rated movie ever worldwide February 28, 2016

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Risen had a modest drop at the box office in its second week.

The film earned an estimated $7 million between Friday and Sunday, which was good enough for fourth place — behind the third week of Deadpool, the disastrously low opening weekend for Gods of Egypt, and the fifth week of Kung Fu Panda 3.

Risen’s second-week gross was only 40.7% less than what the film made in its opening weekend. That’s comparable to the second-week drops of The Passion of the Christ (36.5%) and The Nativity Story (27.2%) and gentler than the second-week drops for Son of God (59.5%), Noah (61%) and Exodus: Gods and Kings (66.4%).

Risen’s cume now stands at $22.7 million. More on that in a minute.

Meanwhile, Deadpool earned $31.5 million in its third week to bring its domestic total up to $285.6 million — making it the third-highest-grossing R-rated film in North America ever, behind 2004’s The Passion of the Christ and 2014’s American Sniper. And it is comfortably ahead of where those films were in their third weekends.

Deadpool is already well ahead of both of those films overseas, but the $324.2 million it has earned overseas currently ranks behind eight other R-rated movies.

However, when you add the domestic and foreign figures, Deadpool is now the third-highest-grossing R-rated movie worldwide, behind The Matrix Reloaded and The Passion of the Christ — and it should pass The Passion by tomorrow.

In other news, Gods of Egypt became the year’s first big flop.

The film, which cost $140 million to produce, made just a tenth of that at the North American box office this week, and the $14 million that it earned was easily the lowest opening for an Alex Proyas film in wide release since 1998’s Dark City.

As Deadline notes, Gods of Egypt was originally going to come out in April, two weeks after the release of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice — but when Ben-Hur moved out of the February 26 release date, Gods of Egypt took the Bible epic’s place.

Alas, Gods of Egypt got out of the way of Batman V Superman only to get trounced by another superhero movie, the incredible success of which no one saw coming.

Lionsgate, the studio behind Gods of Egypt, had hoped their film would launch a new franchise, but that obviously won’t happen now. The question now is whether the demise of this ancient-mythic sword-and-sandals flick will affect Lionsgate’s plans for The Odyssey, which the studio has also been talking up as a potential franchise.

Finally, Hail, Caesar! dropped off the weekly top ten list in its fourth week at the North American box office. The Coen brothers’ parody of (or homage to) Bible movies and other 1950s movie genres has grossed $28.4 million total so far.

Now for a little more data about Risen and where it sits relative to similar films:

Risen had the fourth-best first weekend of any “faith-based” film last week, but — thanks to the fact that films like God’s Not Dead and War Room barely dropped at all in their first few weeks — Risen had only the seventh-best second weekend:

  • 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $53.2 million
  • 2014 — Heaven Is for Real — $14.4 million
  • 2014 — Son of God — $10.4 million
  • 2015 — War Room — $9.5 million
  • 2014 — God’s Not Dead — $8.8 million
  • 2011 — Soul Surfer — $7.3 million
  • 2016 — Risen — $7 million
  • 2014 — When the Game Stands Tall — $6 million
  • 2006 — The Nativity Story — $5.7 million
  • 2011 — Courageous — $4.9 million

Risen also currently ranks 12th among “faith-based” films in terms of total gross…

  • 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 million
  • 2014 — Heaven Is for Real — $91.4 million
  • 2015 — War Room — $67.8 million
  • 2014 — God’s Not Dead — $60.8 million
  • 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 million
  • 2011 — Soul Surfer — $43.9 million
  • 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 million
  • 2011 — Courageous — $34.5 million
  • 2008 — Fireproof — $33.5 million
  • 2014 — When the Game Stands Tall — $30.1 million
  • 2002 — Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie — $25.6 million
  • 2016 — Risen — $22.7 million
  • 2015 — Woodlawn — $14.4 million
  • 2014 — Left Behind — $14 million
  • 2006 — One Night with the King — $13.4 million

…and 11th among Bible-themed films released in the past 40 years:

  • 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 million
  • 1998 — The Prince of Egypt — $101.4 million
  • 2014 — Noah — $101.2 million
  • 2014 — Exodus: Gods and Kings — $65 million
  • 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 million
  • 2009 — Year One — $43.3 million
  • 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 million
  • 1981 — History of the World, Part I — $31.7 million
  • 2016 — Hail, Caesar! — $28.4 million
  • 2002 — Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie — $25.6 million
  • 2016 — Risen — $22.7 million
  • 1979 — Monty Python’s Life of Brian — $20 million
  • 1980 — Wholly Moses! — $14.2 million
  • 2006 — One Night with the King — $13.4 million
  • 1988 — The Last Temptation of Christ — $8.4 million
  • 1985 — King David — $5.1 million
  • 2003 — The Gospel of John — $4.1 million

Risen has one more week to itself. The Young Messiah opens the week after that.

February 29 update: Added the list of the top 15 “faith-based” films.


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