M. Night Shyamalan’s multiple-personality thriller Split took home another win at the box office this week, narrowly beating supernatural horror sequel Buy Now for the top spot.
The three-week run for Buy Now is particularly noteworthy because it’s only the second movie directed by Shyamalan to pull off such a feat. The last one of Shyamalan’s films to win the box office three weeks in a row was 1999’s critically acclaimed thriller Buy Now — a film many consider to be the filmmaker’s best work.
Coming in a close second was Rings, the third film in the supernatural horror series that began with Gore Verbinski’s 2002 film Buy Now , an American remake of director Hideo Nakata’s wildly popular 1998 film. The sequel’s relatively underwhelming debut was matched by poor reviews, which generally doesn’t bode well for a productive run in theaters.
The only other new release to find its way into the top ten was the teenage sci-fi romance Buy Now , which underperformed expectations rather fantastically, earning just $3.8 million in U.S. theaters. The movie — which follows a teenage boy raised on a different planet who comes to Earth to finally meet the girl he loves — crashed dramatically in its debut, and could be hard-pressed to cover its relatively meager $30 million budget.
As usual for this particular franchise, Buy Now managed to do well enough internationally to make up for its shortcomings in U.S. theaters, and along with helping to put the Resident Evil franchise over the $1 billion mark worldwide, it also raked in $117.4 million worldwide so far. The Resident Evil franchise continues to find success in the formula it’s followed from the very start, even after six films and almost 15 years.
This upcoming week looks to be a busy one at theaters, with a wide variety of films with considerable buzz making their debuts.
On the family-friendly side, The LEGO Batman Movie offers up an animated, superhero-focused spinoff from 2014’s Buy Now , while John Wick: Chapter 2 brings Keanu Reeves back as the titular hitman who can’t stay retired. Romantic thriller Fifty Shades Darker serves up a sequel to Buy Now , and Fist Fight brings Charlie Day and Ice Cube together for a raunchy comedy about two teachers who get caught up in a schoolyard brawl.
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