“Get Out” Brings in Audiences

Jordan Peele's days of impersonating President Obama and Gremlin-obsessed studio consultants may be over, but he seems to doing even better behind the camera. His debut film Get Out – a horror-comedy that mines racial tensions for both laughs and scares – debuted in the top spot with an estimated $30.5 million. That's one of the best debuts for a novice director ever. With a rare 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it's likely to become one of the biggest hits of the year, especially given its tiny budget.

That was enough to bump The LEGO Batman Movie down to second place. It's now the biggest movie of the year domestically. (Curiously, the biggest movie worldwide is the xXx sequel The Return of Xander Cage, which has all but disappeared from U.S. theaters.) And judging by the trailers beforehand, it's part of a new flurry of LEGO movies. The Ninjago movie is on its way in September and a sequel will surely be announced any day now.

John Wick: Chapter Two continued its impressive run. The Keanu Reeves assassin thriller is now one of his 10 biggest movies ever, impressive given he's into his 30th year as an actor. The Great Wall fell to fourth, which was still enough to conquer Fifty Shades Darker, which despite a solid opening is getting, ahem, whipped at the box office.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: My Life as a Zucchini, one of the Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature. The Swiss-French film averaged $14,103 on its pair of screens.
• Neither Rock Dog nor Collide were rockin' this weekend. The two barely promoted films opened in wide release, but the former took in only $3.7 million and the latter a mere $1.5 million.
• Well, it took 16 weekends, but Arrival has finally earned $100 million. At 103 days, the only movie this decade that took longer to reach that milestone was 2010's dreadful live-action/CGI Yogi Bear monstrosity.

Next week:

Get Out's reign will be short-lived, though it will still have a solid second week. Next week, Logan takes over. Given its R rating, it will be hard to gauge exactly how big it will open. It could be a bit underwhelming, or it could be near Deadpool levels. But since it's bleak and not funny like that comic book flick, I'm predicting something close to the last solo Wolverine outing in 2013 with around $55 million. Don't expect much out of YA adaptation Before I Fall, but The Shack should have a nice $20 million opening.