LOS ANGELES (AP) – The film adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ best-selling psychological thriller “The Girl on the Train” easily topped the box office this weekend, outpacing the embattled slavery drama “The Birth of a Nation” by a long stretch.
Starring Emily Blunt, “The Girl on the Train” took in $24.5 million for a first-place finish, while Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation,” a Sundance sensation that’s been overshadowed by a rape case in Parker’s past, netted only $7 million for a sixth-place bow. The film, about Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion was acquired by Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million.
Audiences were instead largely drawn to films that came out last weekend, like “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children,” which took in $15.1 million to take second place, and “Deepwater Horizon,” which earned $11.5 million for third place.
“The Magnificent Seven” and “Storks,” both in their third weekends, rounded out the top five with $9 million and $8.3 million, respectively.
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:
