Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
January 14, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The number one movie for the second weekend is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, earning an estimated $27 million (down just 27% from last weekend), and giving it $283.1 million after four weekends. Fun fact: Jumanji earned $100 million in 1995, an number that adjusts to $204.2 million in today’s dollars, and Welcome to the Jungle has blown that away. The family comedy had a reported budget of $110 million, so it’s a huge win for Sony and one of the biggest box office surprises of 2017. It’s going to have another solid Monday, setting it up to cross $300 million by the end of next weekend.
Despite being completely shut out at the Golden Globes, The Post expands from 36 theaters to over 2,800 and was rewarded with a strong $18.6 million weekend. This one’s due to the above the title names, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and director Steven Spielberg. After a holiday box office season when there weren’t many strong options for older audiences, The Post was a top option and with this opening, will likely continue to be. Much like the Globes, it’s in line for a couple of Oscar nominations, even if it’s not likely to win any, so that will keep it fairly relevant over the next few weekends.
Liam Neeson’s The Commuter is the top new film of the weekend, taking third with $13.4 million. This is an okay start for his latest action thriller. It’s at least up from his last attempt, 2015’s Run All Night, which started with $11 million. The Commuter had middling reviews, which probably didn’t affect its box office that much. It’s clear that after the success of the Taken series, Neeson is still cashing in by taking parts as Old Guy Action Hero. It’s headed for a quick trip out of theaters after this weekend and looks for $30 million total if it’s lucky.
Few things in box office are as reliable as a horror entry having a massive second weekend drop, and Insidious: The Last Key delivers. After a strong opening weekend, it drops 59% from last weekend to $12.1 million. It’s got $48.3 million in the bank after two weekends, but being a Blumhouse production (released by Universal), remember that it was made for loose change found it some couch cushions so everything is just fine here. And hey, it’s still the #1 movie of 2018 for those who enjoy small sample sizes.
The other leggy Christmas film was The Greatest Showman, which turned an $8.8 million opening weekend into $100 million. This weekend, the musical added $11.8 million, down just 14% from last weekend, and gives it $94.5 million after four weekends. While it didn’t win any of the big awards at the Golden Globes last weekend (was up for Best Picture and Best Actor for Hugh Jackman), it did pick up Best Song, and it’s looking extremely likely to take that Oscar home as well at this point. The Greatest Showman is a definite crowd pleaser and will continue to hold well over the next couple of weeks after having the smallest drop in the top ten for two straight weekends.
All the way down in sixth we have Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so PANIC PANIC PANIC OMG, no just kidding. Things are fine. It did drop 52% from last weekend to $11.2 million, and it has now earned $591.5 million in five weekends. Stop saying anything negative about a $600 million performance. Let’s worry about the Han Solo movie coming on in May.
Down in seventh place we have our next opener, Paddington 2. The first Paddington opened on this weekend in 2015 to $18.9 million and finished with $76.2 million, but it was the $183.3 million foreign grosses (largely from the UK, natch) that gave us this sequel. In what is likely to be one of the biggest upsets of 2018, Paddington 2 ranks 100% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes. Yes, we’ll still be talking about this in December when you’re looking at the ten best reviewed movies of the year. And if it’s somehow not on that list, then this will be one of the greatest years in cinematic history.
Anyway, now for the bad news: despite the strong reviews, Paddington 2 could only managed a $10.6 million opening weekend. It seems that Jumanji was still going too strong and was the top family choice for the weekend. The good news is that it’ll get a decent Monday bump thanks to schools being closed, and that whatever it earns in North America is also already gravy as it made a killing overseas, to the tune of $133 million.
Our last opener takes eighth place as Taraji P. Henson’s Proud Mary earns $10 million on the weekend. The action film was seemingly buried by Sony with only minimal promotion, and I think that’s money left on the table. One could argue that having it going against The Commuter didn’t help, but we won’t exactly know for sure how things could have turned out.
Pitch Perfect 3 hangs on to ninth place with $5.6 million (down 45%) and $94.6 million since Christmas weekend. The Greatest Showman is just a hair under Pitch Perfect 3 at this point, and while both films are $100 million earners, The Greatest Showman will do it with style, while Pitch Perfect 3 stumbles across the goal line.
Darkest Hour takes tenth for the weekend with $4.5 million (down 25%) and has $35.7 million so far. With Gary Oldman predictably taking the Golden Globe for Best Actor and being the clear frontrunner for the Oscar, the only question now is how many other awards Darkest Hour ends up being nominated for (my guess is picture and makeup).
This weekend’s top 12 films earned $132.3 million, a tick up from last year’s $128.4 million when Hidden Figures led the way with $20.8 million and the top opener was The Bye Bye Man with $13.5 million. Next weekend brings another mixed bag, with 12 Strong, Den of Thieves and an expansion for Daniel Day Lewis’ Phantom Thread.