Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle remained atop the box office for the third week, but Star Wars: The Last Jedi passed a major milestone.
A pair of over-performing new releases weren’t enough to end the three-week reign of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle at the top of the weekend box office — but that wasn’t the only film making headlines.
Jumanji added another $20 million to its domestic ticket sales over the weekend, retaining its hold on the box office and moving past 2012’s Skyfall to become the fifth highest-grossing film of all time for Sony Pictures. (It’s also the only film in the studio’s top five movies that doesn’t have “Spider-Man” in its title). With not much in the way of competition until Black Panther hits theaters, Jumanji is well on its way to bona fide blockbuster status.
On the subject of blockbusters, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was the eighth highest-grossing film over the weekend, but the tickets it sold moved it past Disney’s 2013 animated feature Frozen to become the ninth highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide. It also became just the sixth movie to earn more than $600 million in U. S. theaters during its domestic run, continuing the record-setting ways for the Star Wars franchise.
As for the weekend’s new releases, war drama 12 Strong and crime drama Den of Thieves both outperformed expectations and finished in second and third place, respectively, over the weekend. Neither film received particularly good reviews from professional critics, but 12 Strong did receive an “A” grade from ticket-buying audiences (via CinemaScore). Den of Thieves wasn’t so fortunate, and earned a less-impressive grade of “B+” from audiences.
The only other new release to crack the weekend’s top ten movies was the romantic drama Forever My Girl, which squeaked into the charts with a mere $4.7 million opening weekend. Given that the movie has a 18-percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes at this point, its top-ten position probably says more about the competition (or lack thereof) than the quality of the film.
This upcoming week’s new releases include the long-delayed finale to the Maze Runner trilogy, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, as well as the next installment of the Kickboxer series, Kickboxer: Retaliation, and the quirky, Star Trek-themed comedy Please Stand By .
