The Big Story
In its second weekend, M. Night Shyamalan's multiple–James McAvoys horror movie
Split managed to top the box office once again, scoring a strong $26 million, only 34 percent down from its $40 million opening. For a horror movie, that's a remarkable hold: Box Office Mojo
found four other horror movies that opened around the $40 million number, and they each dropped 63.2, 65.7, 68.3, and 44.2 percent in their second weekends. Our critic
may not have liked Split, but audiences really, really do.
For Shyamalan, his decade-long cold-streak is decidedly a thing of the past.
Split makes his second hit in a row after the success of
The Visit last year; like
Split, which cost just $9 million,
The Visit was made for next to nothing, and managed to gross $65 million domestically, plus another $33 million worldwide. At $78 million domestically and $102 million worldwide,
Split has already eclipsed the full theatrical production of
The Visit, and is Shyamalan's highest-earning film since
The Last Airbender in 2010. Of course,
The Last Airbender cost $150 million, more than 16 times the budget of
Split. In terms of cost to benefit, this is Shyamalan's best performance since his heyday, which included
The Sixth Sense,
Unbreakable,
Signs, and
The Village — all of which grossed at least $240 million worldwide.
http://www.vulture.com/2017/01/split-a-dogs-purpose-box-office.html