"Hidden Figures" Beats "Rogue One" In Its Opening Weekend

Hidden Figures, the historical drama starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe, came in at the top of the box office in its first weekend of wide release, Variety reports.. The film grossed $22.8m. That was enough to beat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  The latest installment of the immensely popular Star Wars saga brought in $22m.

The triumph is an important one. The film's initial showing was $1m more than estimated. That's a good sign that great marketing and word-of-mouth are drawing larger-than-expected audiences. While Hidden Figures played at 2,471 locations as opposed to the 4,175 where Rogue One was shown.
Buzz had been building for months about the story of three Black women mathematicians, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, whose work was crucially to launching an American into space in the 1960s. The film is adapted from a book by Margot Lee Shetterly.

The film, which had a budget of $25m, has more than recovered its budget since it's limited release on Christmas Day.