Carlos Bastarache: jumanji

I always thought things that sounded too good to be true usually aren't told why discovered this!

Columbia Pictures

In its second weekend, Star Wars: The Last Jedi faced off against five new releases, plus two movies expanding around the country. Unsurprisingly, the Force vanquished them all. In fact, the estimated $102 million second weekend for Star Wars: Episode VIII earned more than all five of the new releases combined. Box-office estimates are soft this weekend because Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday and it’s hard to predict Sunday grosses (especially with bad weather around the country), but it appears that The Last Jedi will earn a little more $100 million over the four-day frame, bringing its 11-day total to a whopping $400 million. That’s about 30 percent behind The Force Awakens but 25 percent ahead of Rogue One. It’s also nearly doubled that haul internationally so far, so look for The Last Jedi to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide by the New Year.

The $102 million weekend is good enough that a movie that finishes a distant second can still be considered a big success. That’s the case for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which earned $45 million over the four-day holiday frame and $60 million since its Wednesday release. Given the huge holiday multipliers — and the fact that every day between now and New Year’s plays like a typical Saturday — that is a resounding success for the sequel, especially for one that comes 23 years after the original. Solid reviews (77 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and good word of mouth should easily make the film profitable on a $100 million budget.

Pitch Perfect 3, likewise, looks solid, scoring $35 million over the four-day weekend. It’s not as beloved by critics as the first two (29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but an A- on Cinemascore should boost the final chapter in the franchise to $100 million before all is said and done (double that once worldwide grosses are accounted for). Fourth place goes to another new entry, Hugh Jackman’s enormously joyous The Greatest Showman, which is not collecting the ticket sales it had hoped. It earned $12 million over the four-day frame and $16 million since its release on Wednesday. Critics are not loving the way the film papers over P.T. Barnum’s problematic past (51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences are digging it, giving it an ‘A’ on Cinemascore (and it is undoubtedly a huge, heartfelt crowd-pleaser).

Holdovers grabbed the fifth and sixth slots. Coco continues to burn up the box office, adding another $10 million to bring its five-week total to $165 million. It’s now earned $450 million worldwide. Coco also leaped back over Ferdinand, the number two movie last weekend, which added $9 million in its second weekend and has now earned $28 million after 11 days.

Paramount

Matt Damon’s Downsizing is not performing as well as Paramount had hoped. It debuted at number seven with $7 million over four days, and given its nearly $70 million price tag, a profit looks well out of reach. Critics aren’t in love with the film (51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and I suspect Matt Damon’s disastrous publicity tour hasn’t helped matters, either.

Meanwhile, Darkest Hour and Shape of Water each expanded this weekend into around 800 theaters and performed modestly, earning about $6.1 million and $5 million, respectively, as they gear up for Oscar season.

Finally, the big loser this weekend is Father Figures, the Owen Wilson and Ed Helms road-trip comedy, which struck out with only $4.7 million after having its original 2016 release date pushed back twice. Critics were not enamored with the film (22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), and it didn’t stand much of a chance with the heavy event-film competition over the holiday weekend.

Next week sees the release of Molly’s Game in 270 theaters and All the Money in the World will go wide. Those two will compete with the already stiff competition at the box office.

(Via Deadline / Box Office Mojo)