‘The Revenant’ Braves the Blizzard With $16M at Box Office

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in "The Revenant," an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit. Twentieth Century Fox/© 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Regency Entertainment USA, Inc./Monarcy Enterprises S.a.r.l.

NEW YORK— The snowy frontier saga “The Revenant” weathered a blizzard-ravaged box office.

Weekend movie-going was affected up and down the East Coast by Winter Storm Jonas, which forced theater closures in Washington D.C. and New York, and caused hundreds of theaters to suspend showings. Studio executives said the storm had a major effect on business.

“It had a huge effect on the entire marketplace,” said Kevin Grayson, head of domestic distribution for STX Entertainment, which debuted the horror thriller “The Boy.” ‘'Anywhere from 300 to 400 theaters were affected.”

Fittingly, the film that most flourished in the frigid winter weather was 20th Century Fox’s Oscar-nominated “Revenant,” which took in an estimated $16 million in its third week of wide release. The Alejandro Inarritu-directed thriller, set in the 1820s, is proving to be one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s biggest hits with $119.2 million in North America thus far. It was also the top film internationally over the weekend with $33.8 million.

Tom Hardy hunts for the person he had left for dead, in "The Revenant." Twentieth Century Fox/© 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Regency Entertainment USA, Inc./Monarcy Enterprises S.a.r.l.