Jumanji' Reclaims Top Box-Office Spot -- WSJ
February 05 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
Associated Press
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (February 5, 2018).
NEW YORK -- The heir to "Titanic" is..."Jumanji: Welcome to the
Jungle"?
For the first time since James Cameron's disaster epic, a
December release has topped the weekend box office in February.
Seven weeks after first opening in theaters, Sony Pictures'
"Jumanji" again took the top spot at the North American box office
with an estimated $11 million in ticket sales, according to studio
estimates Sunday.
On a sluggish Super Bowl weekend, that was good enough to
surpass last week's no. 1 film, "Maze Runner: The Death Cure." The
third installment in the trilogy slid 58% in its second week with
$10.2 million in ticket sales. Though "The Death Cure" is behind
the pace of the first two "Maze Runner" films, it has made $142.9
million overseas, including an international-best $35.2 million
this weekend.
But it is the fourth weekend out of seven in which the "Jumanji"
reboot, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, has led all films
domestically. It has carved an unlikely path on route to its
record-setting run. Met with little initial fanfare, "Jumanji"
played second fiddle for its first two weeks of release to "Star
Wars: The Last Jedi."
But riding good word-of-mouth and relatively little family-film
competition, "Jumanji" has become one of Sony's biggest hits ever,
ranking behind only its "Spider-Man" films. It has now grossed
$352.6 million in the U.S. and Canada.
The Helen Mirren-led haunted-house horror film "Winchester" was
the sole new wide release on a weekend that Hollywood typically
cedes to football. The poorly reviewed Lions Gate release opened
with $9.3 million.
Total ticket sales were $92 million, according to comScore, a
sum that falls behind recent Super Bowl weekends -- always among
the quietest movie weekends of the year -- but above the
lowest-grossing ever.
Hollywood will instead be largely focused on the trailers
debuting during Sunday's NFL broadcast. About a dozen films will
hope to capitalize on the largest U.S. broadcast of the year with
high-price commercial spots intended to raise the awareness of
upcoming spring releases and some of the summer's biggest would-be
blockbusters.
Disney hasn't announced plans, but "Star Wars" fans are hoping
to see a spot for the Han Solo spinoff. More likely on tap are ads
for "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," Jennifer Lawrence's "Red
Sparrow," Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible -- Fallout" and another
potential hit for Dwayne Johnson: "Skyscraper."
And for the first time, Fox Searchlight had films playing in
4,000 or more theaters, thanks to its Oscar favorites "The Shape of
Water" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." Guillermo
del Toro's "The Shape of Water," which took the top honor at the
Directors Guild Awards on Saturday, boosted its theater count from
1,854 to 2,341. The leading Oscar nominee with 13 nods, "The Shape
of Water" still slid 21% with $4.3 million.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2018 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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