'Jumanji' three-peats as box office champ while '12 Strong' and 'Den of Thieves' earn solid starts
Without a surprise genre hit like last year’s Split to enter theaters in late January, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle stayed No. 1 on the box office charts for a third straight weekend with $19.6 million.
With a running domestic total of $316.5 million, Jumanji has now passed Skyfall to become one of Sony Pictures’ top five highest-grossing films of all time.
The four films above it are all Spider-Man films: 2002’s Spider-Man ($403.7 million), Spider-Man 2 ($373.6 million), Spider-Man 3 ($336.5 million) and last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334.2 million).
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To stay No. 1, Jumanji staved off openings from two adult action films: Warner Bros./Alcon’s 12 Strong and STX’s Den of Thieves.
12 Strong took second place with $16.5 million from 3,002 screens, thanks in part to a 54 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an A on CinemaScore.
Den of Thieves performed above expectations with a $15 million opening from 2,432 screens, earning a 40 percent RT score and a B+ on CinemaScore.
A mid-teens opening is a solid start for both of these mid-budget action films aimed at older male audiences, with both hoping for a $45-50 domestic total and a strong performance in overseas markets where they are more popular.
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Also opening this weekend in targeted release is Roadside Attractions’ Forever My Girl, a romance that was panned by critics with an 18 percent RT score but won over audiences with an A on CinemaScore. The Bethany Ashton Wolf-directed romance was released on 1,115 screens and came in 10th this weekend with $4 million.
Among holdovers, The Post took fourth place in its second weekend in wide release with $12.1 million, bringing its total to $45.1 million. The Greatest Showman, meanwhile, stayed in the top five in its fifth weekend, adding $10 million to bring its total to $113.1 million after an opening weekend of $14.4 million.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi finally bowed out of the top five, finishing seventh with $6.5 million to become the sixth film in box office history to gross over $600 million domestic with $604 million. It needs another $19 million to bump 2012’s The Avengers as the fifth highest-grossing film in North America.
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Unfortunately, there isn’t as much good news for WB/StudioCanal’s Paddington 2, which came in sixth this weekend with $8 million. Though the family sequel about the bear from Peru became Rotten Tomatoes’ best-reviewed movie ever this past week, it has a ten-day total of $24.9 million. That is 38 percent behind the 10-day total the first Paddington made to this point two years ago.
While a disappointment for Warner, which bought the domestic rights to the film from The Weinstein Company two months ago, Paddington 2 is by no means a flop, having already made its money with a $172.2 million global total, outgrossing its predecessor in the U.K. with $55.4 million.
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