Weekend box office: Jumanji manages to overtake Star Wars for the top spot

Brad Sturdivant January 7th, 2018

JUMANJI: WELCOME OT THE JUNGLE had been overperforming for the past few weeks, but it looks like it finally found the chink in the armor of STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI and was able to leapfrog the film and claim the top spot at the weekend box office. Unfortunately for Jumanji and Dwayne Johnson, less attention is going to be put on how that film is rocketing towards a $250 million domestic haul and more attention will be put on the fact that The Last Jedi is more than $220 million behind The Force Awakens in the same 20 day period. Part of that is fatigue and part of that is the fact we now get a new Star Wars film every year, but $220 million seems like an uncomfortable decline.

It will be interesting to see how the new movies do next weekend. First up is PADDINGTON 2. The first PADDINGTON film opened with $18 million, but I didn’t hear anyone clamoring for a sequel, so I’m not sure the second is going to be able to match that opening number. Next up is THE COMMUTER with Liam Neeson. I know people love seeing Neeson kick bad guys around, and maybe this is just me, but THE COMMUTER does not look very good at all. Finally, there’s PROUD MARY, which is the wildcard of the weekend since it’s not getting much media attention. But my guess is that PADDINGTON 2 and THE COMMUTER go one and two, with Jumanji and Star Wars close behind. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle $36.4m

2. Insidious: The Last Key $25m

3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi $23.8m

4. The Greatest Showman $14.4m

5. Pitch Perfect 3 $10.5m

6. Ferdinand $8.9m

7. Darkest Hour $6.6m

8. Molly’s Game $6.2m

9. Coco $5.8m

10. All the Money in the World $3.6m

(Deadline)