The M Night Shyamalan horror film Split has comprehensively defeated Vin Diesel’s extreme-sports action thriller xXx: The Return of Xander Cage at the US box office, taking more than twice as much as its rival.

The two films were always expected to duke it out for top spot in the week’s chart, although mathematician drama Hidden Figures, whose unheralded success took it to No 1 for the last two weeks, recorded a strong $16m in third place. Split, which stars James McAvoy as a man with 23 different personalities, took $40.2m, significantly above predictions of around $20m. Similar projections were made for Xander Cage, featuring Diesel in his return to the xXx series after dropping out of the second instalment, 2005’s State of the Union; these proved to be justified as it matched them, but fell well short of Split’s.

The only other new entry in the box office Top 10 is The Founder, featuring Michael Keaton as McDonalds’ franchising pioneer Ray Kroc in a much-hyped biopic. Despite general critical approval, its takings were undercooked, with $3.75m from more than 1,100 locations to land at No 9. If, as has been predicted, Keaton scores an Oscar nomination for best actor on Tuesday, figures are likely to improve.

From Split to Psycho: why cinema fails dissociative identity disorder Read more

Monster Trucks, the $125m-budget action comedy for which Paramount has already taken a $115m loss, continues to fare poorly, dropping to seventh place after adding $7m from over 3,000 screens in its second week for a total of $22.6m. Patriots Day, the Mark Wahlberg thriller about the Boston bombing, has also proved underwhelming, with a fifth-week total of $6m to drop to No 8, for a running total of $23.6m. However, its reported cost of $45m means it’s a much less spectacular commercial disappointment.