MLK Box office: Glass shatters top spot with $47 million; Dragon Ball Super: Broly exceeds expectations

What a twist!

M. Night Shyamalan is back at the top of the box office with Glass, the trilogy capper to his secret superhero trilogy that began with 2000's Unbreakable. The final installment in the comic book-inspired film series is set to take in $47 million from 3,841 domestic theaters by the end of Sunday, but the number will only continue to rise thanks to the extended MLK Day weekend. As far as historical openings for the holiday go, Glass is in third place behind American Sniper and Ride Along. 

Unfortunately, the $50 million range is actually a disappointment for the movie, which was originally expected to make between $60 million - $70 million. This estimate was released before critics began publishing their early reviews and Glass earned a total of 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. All in all, reviewers were very much let down by what should have been an epically awesome crossover between David Dunn (Bruce Willis), Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), and Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy).

For the writer/director, however, the $47 million debut is must be somewhat bittersweet, as he has already recouped his investment of $20 million for the production budget.

Re-started in the final moments of 2016's Split, the Shyamalan Cinematic Universe follows individuals who possess real-world super powers like enhanced strength and invulnerability to man made weaponry. In Glass, these people find themselves in a mental institution, studied by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist with doubts about their comic book claims.

Despite a bit of an underwhelming weekend total, Glass is still doing better than its predecessors. For context, Unbreakable did just over $30 million during its first weekend in theaters, while Split  did $40 in its initital weekend release. 

Having dominated the box office last weekend, The Upside has been knocked down to the second spot. Swimming close behind is Aquaman with $12 million; having already broken the $1 billion barrier internationally, it will now cross the $300 million mark in North America. Nevertheless, James Wan's underwater epic still needs a little over $25 million to surpass Suicide Squad domestically and begin to close in on Batman v Superman ($330 million). Currently, Aquaman is the second-highest grossing DC feature film globally (just behind The Dark Knight Rises) and the sixth-highest grossing DC feature film domestically.

One big surprise this week was the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly from Funimation. The animated film became the fifth-highest grossing anime movie in history when it debuted in theaters earlier this week with $7+ million. Set to make $12 million, its final total will rise $20 million by the end of Sunday, edging out Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

The 20th Dragon Ball film also beat out Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F' for the biggest opening ever for Funimation; Resurrection F previously held the record with $1.97 million. Overseas, Broly's done over $51 million in ticket sales; $32 million of that figure comes from theatrical business in Japan.

Broly may even overtake Aquaman for third place once the Monday numbers are accounted for.

(via The Hollywood Reporter, Variety & Box Office Mojo)