New box office champs
Jumanji, Insidious, top Star Wars in its fourth weekend
LOS ANGELES — Move over, Star Wars, there are some new box office champs this weekend. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has topped the charts after three weekends in theatres, and newcomer Insidious: The Final Key opened in second, pushing The Last Jedi into third place.
Columbia Pictures says Sunday that the Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart-led Jumanji is estimated to have earned an additional $36 million this weekend, bringing its total to $244.4 million.
“This is all about Jumanji’s staying power,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for box office tracker comScore. “This is a movie that was overshadowed by all the excitement around The Last Jedi, and yet Jumanji just kept plugging away and drawing audiences throughout the holiday ... This is kind of unheard of for a movie this size.”
In second place is the horror film Insidious: The Final Key, the fourth in the franchise, which earned $29.3 million. The Universal and Blumhouse Pictures film even outperformed the third chapter in the series. That film launched to $22.7 million in June of 2015.
“We could not be more thrilled with that debut. It’s a fantastic result,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “The release date worked in our favour. There hasn’t been a similar film in a couple of months. ”
Young audiences drove the Insidious box office with 59 per cent under the age of 25. Whether or not they enjoyed the film is another question: It got a scary B- CinemaScore.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi fell to third place with $23.6 million in its fourth weekend in theatres. The space blockbuster has grossed $572.5 million to date.
The Greatest Showman took fourth place with $13.8 million and Pitch Perfect 3 rounded out the top five with $10.2 million.
Awards seasons films continue to expand throughout January, too, like Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut Molly’s Game, which added over 1,300 theatres this weekend and took in $7 million. The Jessica Chastain-starrer about the real life “poker princess” Molly Bloom is up for two Golden Globe awards Sunday evening — best actress and best screenplay.
The Winston Churchill film Darkest Hour starring Gary Oldman (who is up for a best actor Golden Globe) also added 790 theatres and took in $6.4 million.
The weekend is up around 18 per cent from the same weekend last year, which Dergarabedian sees as a sign that perhaps the 2018 box office will be stronger and more steady than 2017.
“2017 was not consistent. It was volatile, it was a rollercoaster,” Dergarabedian said. “This sets the tone for what we’re hoping is a consistent and strong 2018 box office.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to comScore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.