Coco still on top on quiet weekend

LOS ANGELES — The animated family film Coco has topped the box office for a third time on a quiet, pre-Star Wars: The Last Jedi weekend in theatres.

Disney estimated Sunday that Coco added $18.3 million US, which would bring its domestic total to $135.5 million.

The weekend’s sole new wide release was the Morgan Freeman film Just Getting Started, which launched to a meagre $3.2 million from 2,161 theatres and barely made the top 10.

Most studios have chosen to avoid competing against The Last Jedi, which is expected to dominate theatres and moviegoer attention when it opens on Dec. 15.

Thus, most of the charts have looked quite similar for the past few weeks. Warner Bros. and DC’s Justice League took second place with $9.6 million and Lionsgate’s sleeper hit Wonder, which has passed $100 million, placed third with $8.5 million. Warner Bros. also crossed the $2<billion benchmark domestically Saturday — the first studio to do so in 2017.

This quiet period before Star Wars has allowed some of the indie and prestige titles to thrive in limited releases and expansions, such as James Franco’s The Disaster Artist. The film, about the making of one of the worst films of all time, The Room, expanded to 840 locations in its second weekend in theatres. It managed to bring in $6.4 million, landing it in fourth place.

Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age film Lady Bird also added 363 locations and placed ninth in its sixth weekend in theatres. With the $3.5 million from this weekend, Lady Bird has netted $22.3 million.

The Guillermo del Toro-directed romantic fantasy The Shape of Water expanded to 41 theatres in its second weekend and earned $1.1 million.