‘Jumanji’ tops box office for third weekend

NEW YORK — Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle outdid another weekend’s worth of newcomers to top the North American box office for the third straight weekend, making the surprise hit the fifth-highest grossing film of all time for Sony Pictures.

Jumanji, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, sold $20 million in tickets, according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its five-week domestic total to $317 million. That makes Sony’s reboot the studio’s best non-Spider-Man movie domestically, not adjusting for inflation.

Jumanji has also reigned overseas, where it has grossed $450.8 million and topped all films internationally for three straight weeks.

The war drama 12 Strong, starring Chris Hemsworth, debuted in second with $16.5 million in ticket sales. The Warner Bros. release, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is a fact-based tale, adapted from Doug Stanton’s best-seller Horse Soldiers, about a group of Special Forces soldiers sent into northern Afghanistan just weeks after Sept. 11.

12 Strong appealed largely to an older crowd. Seventy-nine percent of its audience was over the age of 25, said Warner Bros.

The heist thriller Den of Thieves slotted in at third place with an opening weekend of $15.3 million. The STXfilms release stars Gerard Butler and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

Paddington 2, which has set a new record for the most widely reviewed 100-percent fresh movie on Rotten Tomatoes, grossed $8.2 million in its second week of domestic release thanks in part to good word of mouth.