Although The Witch offered its protagonist the opportunity to “live deliciously,” why have bread and wine—or goat’s milk, for that matter—when you can have chimichangas? That’s the question the American movie-going public asked itself this weekend, as Deadpool topped the box office for a second week in a row. The R-rated, Ryan Reynolds-starring hit that no one in Hollywood saw coming made an additional $55 million this past weekend, more than four times the amount generated by its nearest competitor, Kung Fu Panda 3, which hung in there at No. 2 with $12.5 million. Thus far, the film has made more in the U.S. than any of the X-Men movies (not adjusted for inflation, mind you), and with a typically “meh” slate of late-winter fare coming on Friday, don‘t be surprised if it’s No. 1 next week, as well.
Further down the charts, we’ve got a literal battle between good and evil as the faith-based resurrection drama Risen faced off against the artfully made, Satanist-approved historical horror movie The Witch. And sadly for the devil worshippers among us, it looks like Joseph Fiennes is more powerful than Satan: Risen came in at No. 3 with $11.8 million, handily beating The Witch’s $8.7 million fourth-place debut.
That’s all relative, though, as Risen cost a reported $20 million, while The Witch’s weekend haul will be enough to cover the film’s relatively tiny budget and marketing costs. It’s the best debut to date for young, seemingly savvy distributor A24, which had the well-received Ex Machina and Oscar nominee Room on its slate last year. It also has the buzzy Green Room coming in April, and acquired Swiss Army Man—a.k.a. the farting boner corpse movie—out of Sundance, so if anyone’s made a pact with the Devil recently, it’s probably them. Or they just have good taste.
Meanwhile, racial double entendres appear to be on their way out, as Jesse Owens sort-of biopic Race limped across the weekend finish line at No. 6 with $7.3 million. It was beat by How To Be Single at No. 5, a film which poses a question whose answer is, presumably, “Wear Deadpool Underoos.”
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.