‘Hidden Figures’ prevails with $20.5M; ‘Monster Trucks,’ ‘Live by Night’ bomb

LOS ANGELES — It’s bombs away at the multiplexes.

Action-thriller “Sleepless” and family film “Monster Trucks” tanked when they debuted over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, while Ben Affleck’s “Live By Night” and Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” suffered moribund national expansions. Their failures will lead to tens of millions of dollars in red ink for the studios that backed them.

Fox and Chernin Entertainment’s “Hidden Figures” retained its box office crown in its second weekend of wide release, earning $20.5 million for the weekend and a projected $25.3 million for the long weekend. That will push its total to $59.7 million. The historical drama about African-American NASA workers during the early days of the space program has been one of the biggest breakouts of awards season.

“Hidden Figures” faced stiff competition from Lionsgate’s “La La Land,” which is riding high after sweeping the Golden Globe Awards, and STX’s “The Bye Bye Man,” which earned $14.5 million and $13.4 million, respectively. “La La Land” is widely expected to dominate the Oscar nominations. The musical about lovestruck Angelenos should finish the four-day weekend with another $17.5 million in domestic receipts, which would bring its stateside total to more than $77 million.

“The Bye Bye Man’s” strong reception is welcome news for STX, which had expected the film to open to roughly $10 million. The horror film about college students grappling with a deadly supernatural figure cost less than $8 million to produce. It should make $15 million over the four-day holiday.

Heading into the weekend, most analysts expected CBS Films and Lionsgate’s “Patriot’s Day” to put up more of a fight. The drama about the Boston Marathon Bombing, earned $12 million after moving from seven theaters to 3,120 locations. It could make $14.3 million over the four-day stretch. That’s below projections, which had it earning as much as $18 million. The studios believe that “Patriot’s Day” could benefit from enthusiastic word-of-mouth; audiences gave the film a rare A+ CinemaScore.

“Monster Trucks’” failure seemed preordained. Last year, Paramount took a $115 million write down on the film. “Monster Truck’s” reception justified that fiscal white flag waving. It opened to a pallid $10.5 million and a projected $13 million over the holiday, a disastrous result given its $125 million budget. Paramount has had a bruising period. The studio has been embroiled in a corporate power struggle that pitted the controlling Redstone family against Philippe Dauman, the former chairman of Paramount’s parent company Viacom. The Redstones ultimately prevailed, but the pressure is now on Paramount chief Brad Grey to prove he can deliver more hits. The studio scored with “Fences” and “Arrival,” but lost millions on the likes of “Allied,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” and “Ben-Hur.”

“Live by Night’s” troubles will hit Affleck hard. He directed, produced, and wrote the Dennis LeHane adaptation, and took a starring role as a charismatic rum runner. Warner Bros. is releasing the $65 million production. It earned a sallow $5.4 million and should end the four-day holiday with just over $6 million, which more or less leaves the gangster picture on the slab. Affleck should be on firmer commercial ground reprising his Dark Knight role in “Justice League” later this year.

Open Road’s “Sleepless” didn’t fare much better, although it cost less. The $30 million production stars Foxx as a morally compromised cop whose extracurricular activities endanger his son. It kicked off with a meagre $8.5 million and should end the long weekend with $10.1 million in the till.

Then there’s “Silence,” a decades-in-the-making religious drama. Scorsese struggled for years to cobble together the financing for this story about Jesuit priests who risk torture and death to spread the gospel in feudal Japan. But audiences seemed to have little appetite for his rumination on faith. “Silence” expanded from 51 theaters to 747 locations, earning between $2 million to $3 million in the process. The $50 million film was financed independently. Paramount is distributing the picture.

Holdovers “Sing” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” continued to show strength, with both films earning roughly $13.8 million. “Sing,” the latest collaboration between the “Despicable Me” team of Universal and Illumination, has earned $237.2 million stateside. “Rogue One” is now the top-grossing 2016 release with more than $500 million in receipts. It will cross the $1 billion mark at the global box office this week.