'Split' continues to dominate at the box office

Blumhouse Productions

Another unimpressive crop of new releases showed up at the multiplex this weekend, so it's no surprise to folks in the industry to see that M. Night Shyamalan's latest low budget box office hit, "Split," is atop the box office once again. 

Marking the third consecutive weekend the James McAvoy split personality thriller sitting at number one, the movie took in an estimated $14.6 million this weekend, according to Deadline. That gives"Split" a domestic total of $98.7 million.

Not since Shyamalan's breakout hit "The Sixth Sense" has one of his movies topped the box office for three straight weeks.

On only a $9 million budget, the performance of "Split" is a true redemption story for Shyamalan, who reverted back to lower budget movies (his previous movie "The Visit" also found success) after the disastrous performance of 2013's big budget Will Smith movie, "After Earth."

Helping the performance of "Split" is the perfect release date Universal gave it. Opening in the end of January, where many of the studios are focused more on the campaigns for their Oscar-worthy movies, the movie has capitalized as being the best option in a crop of uninspiring titles for audiences.

This weekend was no different, as "Rings" didn't bring the scares like previous releases in "The Ring" franchise (it took in $13 million this weekend), "The Space Between Us" didn't excite the Millennials ($3.8 million), and Robert De Niro as an insult comic in "The Comedian" was not entertaining ($1.1 million).

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