It might be brutally cold across the country right now, but the North America box office was anything but this past weekend as 2018 got off to a running start. Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle climbed to the top spot, Universal’s Insidious: The Last Key opened strongly and Star Wars: The Last Jedi continued its march up the all-time box office champ list. The top ten was up 19% over one year ago at this time when Hidden Figures expanded to a great $31.4 million.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle eased a mere 28% from last weekend to score an estimated $36.3 million from 3,801 theaters. The three-week domestic total for the Jake Kasdan blockbuster stands at $244.3 million domestically. Overseas, the action comedy has earned an equally impressive $275 million. The film should continue to bring the crowds in throughout January, which will help push its final domestic close to the $315-320 million mark.
Scaring up plenty of business in second place was the Universal horror sequel Insidious: The Last Key with a strong $29.3 million from 3,116 theaters. Insidious: The Last Key was met with a chorus of boos from critics -a 49/100 from Metacritic and a 25% approval on Rotten Tomatoes-, but audiences were a little more kind. They gave the film a “B-“ on CinemaScore.
The opening for the fourth chapter in the low budget/high profit franchise was the third biggest horror opening for the month of January following Split ($40 million) and The Devil Inside ($33.7 million).
Dropping from first to third place in its fourth weekend was Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi with an estimated $23.6 million from 4,232 theaters. Down 55% from last weekend, the eighth chapter in the ongoing Skywalker saga has banked $572.5 million so far. A final near the $630 million mark is a possibility, which would be just enough to land the film in fifth place on the highest-grossing domestic box office list.
Overseas, The Last Jedi has brought in $632.7 million. The film opened in China this weekend to an underwhelming $28.7 million.
Like Jumanji, the Fox musical The Greatest Showman has caught on with audiences and is showing some great staying power. The Hugh Jackman hit lost a mere 11% of its holiday crowd, landing in fourth place with an estimated $13.8 million from 3,342 theaters. After three weeks, The Greatest Showman has sold $76 million worth of tickets so far. It should cross the $100 million mark within a couple of weeks. Overseas, the P.T. Barnum tale has grossed $44.2 million so far.
Rounding out the top five was Universal’s Pitch Perfect 3 with an estimated $10.2 million from 3,458 theaters. Off 39%, the Bellas has bagged $86 million domestically and $55 million from overaseas.
- Ferdinand (Fox) $7.7 million (-32%); $70.4 million
- Molly’s Game (STX) $7 million (+198%); $14.2 million
- Darkest Hour (Focus) $6.3 million (+16%); $28.3 million
- Coco (Disney) $5.5 million (-26%); $192 million
- All the Money in the World (Sony) $3.5 million (-36%); $20.1 million
Next weekend sees the arrival of The Commuter, Paddington 2, Proud Mary and the national expansion of Steven Spielberg’s newspaper drama The Post.
