DIS Walt Disney Co

By Erich Schwartzel 

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" became the highest-grossing movie of 2017 this weekend, giving Walt Disney Co. another banner year at the box office that left rival studios fighting for leftovers.

"The Last Jedi" has collected an estimated $533 million in the U.S. and Canada so far, and the space-opera sequel will still run in theaters for several more weeks.

After collecting $68.4 million over the four-day weekend, "The Last Jedi" has already passed the $532 million domestic gross of last year's "Rogue One," but is expected ultimately to lag behind 2015's "The Force Awakens," the top-grossing movie of all time with $937 million at the domestic box office.

"The Last Jedi" has grossed $1.04 billion world-wide and has yet to open in China, the world's No. 2 box-office market.

In another indication of its box-office dominance, Disney has three titles total in the top-five grossing films of 2017, including No. 2 "Beauty and the Beast" ($504 million) and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" in fourth place with $390 million. "Wonder Woman," from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., was the third-highest grossing movie of the year with $413 million and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" from Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Entertainment came in fifth with $334 million.

Overall trends were worrisome and signal the growing importance of foreign markets to Hollywood studios. In a troubling sign for exhibitors, movie attendance declined to levels last seen in the 1990s, leaving it up to higher ticket prices to pick up some of the slack. International grosses rose about 5% to a record $28.8 billion, but total domestic sales fell about 2.3% to $11.1 billion in 2017, according to comScore.

Theater owners had been bullish heading into the year, but several major releases -- "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," "Transformers: The Last Knight" and "The Mummy" among them -- fell short of expectations.

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day boosted grosses for several releases, most notably Sony's "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle." The family-oriented board-game adaptation has collected $185.8 million so far.

"Pitch Perfect 3" also continued to perform well, adding $21 million over four days for a cumulative $67.5 million. The a cappella comedy was released by Comcast Corp.'s Universal Pictures.

"The Greatest Showman," starring Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum, had initially made its debut to lackluster returns, but it made up some lost ground during the holidays. The musical grossed $20.8 million over the long weekend and has collected $54.3 million so far. "Showman" was released by Twentieth Century Fox, whose parent company, 21st Century Fox , shares common ownership with News Corp., owner of The Wall Street Journal.

The week's new wide release, Sony's "All the Money in the World," has disappointed so far with $14.7 million since opening on Christmas Day. The movie about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III has made headlines for off-screen drama.

After actor Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, director Ridley Scott made the unprecedented decision to reshoot his scenes with Christopher Plummer in the role. Mr. Scott delivered the new version of the movie with days to spare.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 01, 2018 15:57 ET (20:57 GMT)

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