Coco ’lives on
The DisneyPixar animated comedy Coco showed serious staying power this weekend in North American theaters, holding to the top spot for its third week running while taking in an estimated $18.3 million, industry website Exhibitor Relations reported. The colorful film tells the story of Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), a young Mexican who longs to become a musician despite his family’s unrelenting ban on music. He stumbles into the Land of the Dead, where trickster Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal) helps him unravel a surprising family secret. Coco has taken in $135.5 million since its release over the long Thanksgiving weekend, and is already the top-grossing film ever in Mexico. It is one of just four films to lead the North American box office for three weekends in a row this year, according to variety.com. But that is expected to change with the much-anticipated release next week of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, predicted to net up to a mammoth $200 million in its opening weekend.
Second on North American screens this weekend was Warner Bros’ Justice League, taking in $9.6 million, for a four-week total of $212 million. Its allstar cast features Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman and Jason Momoa as Aquaman, plus Ciaran Hinds as a supervillain.
Third was Lionsgate’s feelgood film Wonder, which netted $8.5 million. The movie, starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay, tells the story of a determined fifth-grade boy with a facial deformity who must deal with rudeness and bullying by schoolmates.
Shooting up to fourth place was The Disaster Artist, distributed by A24, a comedy-drama directed by James Franco about the making of 2003 cult movie The
Room, reputedly one of the worst films ever (it made a grand total of $2,000 when first released). Starring Franco, Seth Rogen and Alison Brie, Disaster took in $6.4 million for the weekend. And in fifth was Thor: Ragnarok, featuring the selfeffacing humor of Chris Hemsworth as the powerful Norse god and Cate Blanchett as death goddess Hela. The Disney film netted $6.3 million, bumping up its six-week total to $301 million. Rounding out the list were: Daddy’s Home 2 ($6 million) Murder on the Orient Express ($5.1 million) The Star ($3.7 million) Lady Bird ($3.5 million) Just Getting Started ($3.2 million)