After it’s stunning, record-breaking launch last weekend, it’s no surprise that Fox’s Deadpool will remain the number one domestic draw at the box office this weekend. The R-rated superhero pic ended its first week with $180.4 million, putting it 34% ahead of where Guardians of the Galaxy stood at the same point in its run. That’s significant because: 1) Guardians was a late summer feature, 2) it was released in 3D, 3) it was rated PG-13. At this point you’re probably familiar with the reasons Deadpool is a box office outlier, but it bears repeating how amazing it is that this R-rated, 2D, winter release has outperformed all but a handful of superhero pics that have come before it.

Deadpool earned another $16.2 million on Friday, its eighth day in theatres. That puts the film on track to pass $200 million on Saturday, and $350 million worldwide. For its second weekend, Deadpool is expected to earn at least $56 million, or a decline of approximately 58 percent from its opening. That’s a standard drop for recent superhero films, equivalent to that of Iron Man 3. Looking again at Guardians of the Galaxy, the Disney pic was down 55% in its own sophomore frame in August 2014.

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Unsurprisingly, this weekend’s three new releases all opened in the shadow of the still-surging Deadpool. First among the newbies is Sony’s Risen. The faith-based feature starring Joseph Fiennes was expected to open with about $7 million despite a big theatre count of 2,915 locations. But it looks like Risen may rise above expectations. The movie took in an estimated $4 million on Friday and is now targeting a $12 million debut.

The next newcomer is trending in the opposite direction. Race, Focus Features’ biopic of Olympic legend Jesse Owens, was projected to open with at least $10 million. That would have put the film on par with McFarland, USA – the football drama that opened to $11 million on this same weekend in 2015. But Race wound up sluggish out of the gate, taking in an estimated $2.3 million on Friday from 2,369 locations. It’s now expected to fall short of $8 million through Sunday.

Finally, The Witch appears surprisingly strong after its first day in just over 2,000 theatres. The R-rated horror pic from distributor A24 (Ex Machina, Spring Breakers) was a bit of a question mark entering this weekend. The movie was promoted almost exclusively through digital media and was originally scheduled for a VOD-only release. A theatrical debut was secured by positive reviews, though the film was not expected to earn much more than $5 million this weekend. But The Witch wound up earning an estimated $3.2 million on Friday alone and is now projected to exceed $8.5 million through Sunday. That’s pretty good given the film cost A24 just $1 million to acquire at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Here’s Friday’s top six films. We’ll have full details on the weekend’s box office tomorrow.

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