Like the brick-built Bruce Wayne, "The LEGO Batman Movie" has been fortunate in its choice of rivals. The three movies that opened wide this weekend didn't really stand a chance of beating "LEGO Batman," with its estimated $34.2 million. Nor were they likely to outsell "Fifty Shades Darker" (which whipped up an estimated $21.0 million), even with the sadomasochistic sequel's loss of 55 percent of the business it earned during last weekend's premiere. "The Great Wall" and "Fist Fight" didn't do great, either, while "A Cure for Wellness" did a little worse.

Why wasn't the star power of such reliable box office draws as "Great Wall's" Matt Damon enough to challenge the two star-free top box office draws? It could have to do with the audiences each movie is chasing. For instance, there's...

Reviews for the three new wide releases are all poor, ranging from 32 to 38 percent fresh. Word-of-mouth is no better, judging by their CinemaScore grades: lackluster B grades for "Great Wall" and "Fist Fight" and a dismal C+ for "Wellness." No wonder that horror film opened in 10th place with an estimated $4.2 million, even falling short of the low $6 million bar analysts had predicted.

You'd have thought "Fist Fight" would have been able to muster better than a fifth-place opening, with an estimated $12.0 million. Not only has Cube been a solid draw in recent comedies like the "Ride Along" movies, but "Fist Fight" also had the comedy marketplace all to itself. So it seems clear that the weak reviews and word-of-mouth must have hurt.

According to exit polls, the "Great Wall" audience was 15 percent Asian, or nearly three times the percentage of Asians among the American populace.

Interestingly, "Great Wall" also drew an audience that was 23 percent Hispanic, also a higher fraction than the Hispanic percentage among the populace (nearly 18 percent). Is Hollywood underestimating potential sales among Hispanic viewers? Almost certainly.

After all, this weekend also saw the release of "Everybody Loves Somebody," a bilingual romantic comedy set largely in Mexico, distributed by Pantelion, the Lionsgate division that's had several hits in recent years with similar films. "Everybody" debuted at No. 14 with an estimated $1.0 million, even though it played on only 333 screens.

3. The Young Adult Audience
"Great Wall" did a better job than "Fist Fight" in cultivating young adult viewers. Some 50 percent of "Great Wall" viewers were under 30. Just 39 percent of "Fist Fight" viewers were under 25, in part because of the film's R rating.

Then again, there have been an awful lot of horror movies over the last two months, so even if "Wellness" had earned positive buzz, a female audience that had had its fill of horror might still have stayed away.

The film cost a reported $150 million to make, but it's sold so many tickets overseas that its profitability is assured, no matter how little it sells here.

"Great Wall" is one of several movies already in 2017 whose foreign earnings make their domestic earnings look like sofa-cushion change, including "Fifty Shades Darker," "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage," and "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter." Even "La La Land" has made more than $200 million abroad, about 1 1/2 times what it's earned domestically.

Maybe "Fist Fight" and "Wellness" would have done better if they'd had more Chinese appeal. Or at least no one would care about their lackluster domestic debuts.