Ride Along 2 is set to be the holiday weekend’s top film at the US box office and will end the month-long reign of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The comedy sequel, which reunites Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, is projected to end up with a $40m (£28m) haul for the Martin Luther King weekend from 15-18 January. It’s an impressive number, given its $40m budget, but below the original’s $48.6m box office tally.
Ride Along, which opened on the same weekend two years ago, finished its run with $135m.
Set to come in second is The Revenant, boosted by the week’s Oscar nominations, in which it led the field with 12 nods. It’s projected to finish with $33m, around 25% down from last weekend, its first in wide release.
It wasn’t the only film to have been boosted by the nominations, with financial comedy-drama The Big Short dropping only 15%, despite showing in fewer cinemas; period romance Brooklyn jumping 57%, and surprise best-picture nominee Room leaping by 504%.
While Star Wars: The Force Awakens might have fallen from the top spot, it’s still performing well, with an estimated $30m for the weekend. It’s now the highest-grossing film ever in the US and is slowly creeping up the worldwide list, in third position behind Titanic and Avatar.
Slightly underperforming over the weekend was 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Michael Bay’s controversial thriller, which has been heavily marketed at Republican cinemagoers, is set to make $19m. The majority of its box office has come from southern states. It’s a disappointment for Paramount, which had hoped to get closer to American Sniper’s $107m opening last January.
Elsewhere, animated comedy Norm of the North will make around $9m, while Maggie Smith’s The Lady in the Van opened strongly in a limited release.
