“Hidden Figures” came in almost $2 million above expectations for its wide-release debut. The film has taken the top spot at the box office, slightly edging out “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
“Hidden Figures” sold $22.8 million in ticket sales at North American theaters this past weekend. The Walt Disney Company’s “Rogue One” earned $22.1 million in its fourth weekend, according to Friday-to-Sunday box office revenue tallies released on Monday.
The film is based on the true story of a team of African American women, Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Mone), who provided NASA with important mathematical data at the start of the Cold War. The women computed trajectories needed to launch the program’s first successful space missions, including John Glenn’s famous 1962 voyage.