‘Lego Ninjago’ Fizzles, Leaving ‘Kingsman’ Sequel a Soft No. 1<br />“The Golden Circle,” directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Channing Tatum, Colin Firth<br />and Halle Berry, did the best with men — 58 percent of the audience was male — and received a B-plus grade in CinemaScore exit polls, the same as “The Secret Service.”<br />Chris Aronson, Fox’s president of domestic distribution, noted<br />that “The Secret Service” had the benefit of Valentine’s Day falling on its opening Saturday, which undoubtedly boosted results.<br />“The Golden Circle,” a sequel to the quirky 2015 action comedy “Kingsman: The Secret Service,”<br />collected about $39 million at 4,003 theaters in North America — a solid No.<br />But Warner stumbled with “The Lego Ninjago Movie,” which arrived in third place with $21.2 million<br />in ticket sales — sharply less than box office analysts had predicted going into the weekend<br />“It was also Presidents’ Day weekend, and so I’m really happy that ‘The Golden Circle’ — with no holiday boost — opened to a bigger number,” he said.<br />At home, second place for the weekend went to “It” (Warner Bros.), which collected<br />about $30 million, for an astounding three-week domestic total of $266.3 million.<br />In total, “The Golden Circle” collected $61 million at the foreign box office over the weekend.<br />LOS ANGELES — “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and “The Lego Ninjago Movie” underwhelmed critics.<br />“This movie has turned into the definition of a zeitgeist hit,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner’s president of domestic distribution.
