I'm pretty happy for these films. I got into a nasty exchange last year with a pretty racist dude and he brought up "White people went to space!!"...Nothing felt better than educating him about Katherine Johnson, the "human computer" that got those "White people" into space. Story's like this are so important to helping us grow as a society.
As final weekend box office totals pour in, the Theodore Melfi-directed film, about three black mathematicians (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe) driving NASA’s position in the Space Race amid racial segregation in 1960s Virginia, has surpassed best picture frontrunner La La Land to become the top-grossing best picture Oscar nominee of the year.
Initially projected to have earned $10.1 million and $7.5 million, respectively, weekend actuals for Hidden Figures and La La Land amount to $10.2 million and $7.4 million. Thus far, Hidden Figures has made $119.5 million in North America, while La La Land‘s tally clocks in at $118.2 million.
To date, this year’s best picture nominees have collectively grossed around $570 million from U.S. and Canadian theaters, with the aforementioned titles being the only two to have bagged more than $100 million.