Universal's "Split" tops North American weekend box office for second time

Universal's "Split" holds the number one spot for the second time at the weekend box offices of North America on Sunday.

"Split" took an estimated 26.2 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales from 3,199 locations, a 161 theaters increase compared with last weekend. This only 9 million budget film has grossed about 77.9 million dollars within two weeks in U.S. and Canada and total worldwide sales of nearly 102 million dollars, according to box office tracker comScore.

"A Dog's Purpose" debuted with 18.4 million dollars in sales from 3,059 locations. Opening day audiences showed their likeness to this film by giving the film an "A" on CinemaScore.

Female took up 56 percent of total audience for "A Dog's Purpose," and 47 percnet of the audience consisted of families with children under age 13.

"A Dog's Purpose" has faced some disputes on unfriendly treated animals. Its producer has denounced a video of one of the dog actors, unhappy with being ordered to jump into a wave tank, as unfair and misleading.

Fox's "Hidden Figures" was in third place, with 14 million dollars in sales projected for this weekend, and an estimated 104 million dollars in sales over six weeks.

Another debut, "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter," was on track to be the number four movie, with 13.9 million dollars in estimated sales.

Oscar frontrunner "La La Land" jumped 43 percent to 12 million dollars this weekend after nominations earlier this weekend as its global total now tops 220 million dollars.

Rounding out the rest ten most-popular movies this weekend were "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" (8.3 million dollars), "Sing" (6.2 million), "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (5.1 million), "Monster Trucks" (4.1 million) and "Gold" (3.5 million).

source: Xinhua