Battle at the Box Office 1/15

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle managed to hold off the competition of the first major weekend of 2018 that had 3 new releases, a major expansion and a 4 day weekend for lots of people.

Jumanji took in another $35.4 million for the four day weekend, bringing it to over $291 million total and over $674 million worldwide.  It’s the eighth highest grossing film of 2017 between Despicable Me 3 and Thor: Ragnorak.

In it’s wide expansion, The Post took second with $23.4 million and jumping up from 15th place last weekend when it was still in limited release.  It’s total now is just over $27 million.

New release The Commuter took third place with $16.4 million, which is the fourth best opening for director Jaume Collet-Sera and his third best collaboration with Liam Neeson.  It was less than half of what Non-Stop made in it’s opening weekend and $6 million off from what Unknown made in it’s opening weekend though and it’s nowhere near the best opening for Liam Neeson but it is above expectations.

The Greatest Showman and Star Wars: The Last Jedi rounded out the top 5, with The Greatest Showman showing incredible holdover over the last few weeks and only dropping 13% from last week while Star Wars lost 1,142 theaters and dropped from third last weekend.

Paddington 2, while a sensation in his native UK, did not fare too well in the US, coming in sixth with $15 million.  The first film made $18.9 million in it’s opening weekend back in 2015 but worldwide it’s already made over $140 million.

The last new release, Proud Mary, came in 8th with $12 million and compares to just $2 million above the trashy Halle Berry thriller Kidnap last year and below movies like The Boy Next Door, Smoking Aces and When the Bough Breaks.  It’s also $9 million below the director’s last movie, London Has Fallen, which made $21 million it’s opening weekend.

Further down the list, Phantom Thread had the best Per Theater take for the weekend, making over $22,000 in each of it’s 62 theaters.