Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Nothing beats Coco for 3rd week
LOS ANGELES — In advance of the highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi opening today, the weekend’s box office remained virtually unchanged, with Disney’s Coco maintaining the top spot for the third weekend in a row.
Despite losing 239 locations, Coco raked in about $18.4 million, a relatively small decline of 34 percent, for a cumulative gross of $135.6 million, according to figures from measurement firm ComScore.
Also unchanged, Warner Bros.’ Justice League came in second place again, earning $9.6 million, a 42 percent drop, for a cumulative gross of $212 million.
Lionsgate’s Wonder maintained the No. 3 spot, surpassing $100 million and becoming the studio’s highest-grossing film since La La Land.
The film brought in an additional $8.4 million in its fourth week, only a 30 percent decline, for a cumulative average of $100.3 million. Produced by Lionsgate, Participant Media, Walden Media and Mandeville Films for $20 million, the film stars Jacob Tremblay (Room) and Julia Roberts.
It has been a good week for A24, with two films that have been generating Oscar buzz ranking among the top 10: Lady Bird maintained its hold despite dropping two spots to No. 9 after six weeks in theaters, and comedy The Disaster Artist rose to No. 4 after expanding nationally into 840 theaters from just 19.
Now in its second week, The Disaster Artist, which chronicles the making of Tommy Wiseau’s cult-classic The Room, earned $6.4 million, a 431 percent increase, for a cumulative $8 million in earnings.
Rounding out the top five was Disney’s Thor: Ragnarok, now in its sixth week, which made $6.3 million last weekend, a 36 percent decline, for a cumulative $301 million in earnings. The film, which cost $180 million to make, also stars Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum and Tessa Thompson.
The only wide release to debut this week, Broad Green Pictures’ action comedy Just Getting Started, premiered at No. 10 and earned $3.2 million.
In limited release, Fox Searchlight’s Oscar-bait The Shape of Water, now in its second weekend, added 39 theaters and brought in $1.1 million, an impressive per-screen average of about 27 million for a cumulative total of about $1.4 million.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the film stars Sally Hawkins as a mute cleaning lady working in a high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. The Shape of Water, which earned a 95 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, took the most honors at the previous weekend’s Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.
Sony Classics’ Call Me By Your Name, also in its third weekend, earned $285,850 across nine locations for a strong per-screen average of $31,761 and a cumulative gross of $1.4 million. Starring Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet and directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film was voted best picture at the L.A. Film Critics Association Awards.
In its third weekend, Focus Features’ Darkest Hour expanded into 535 theaters and added $741,417 to its earnings for a per-screen average of $13,989 and a cumulative gross of $1.2 million. The film stars Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill as he attempts to unite Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany as Hitler’s army rampages across Europe in 1940.