Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
January 21, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
January tried again with two new wide releases and while both did fine and one notably over performed, neither can take away the weekend crown from the surprise December juggernaut.
For the the third weekend in a row, your #1 movie is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. If a month ago someone had said that it would have as many weeks at #1 as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we all would have taken that bet in a heartbeat. Jumanji added another $20 million, continuing the trend of sub-30% declines (off 29% from last weekend) and has now earned $316.9 million since opening before Christmas. That pushes it just ahead of Thor: Ragnarok ($313.4 million) for seventh place among 2017 films, and will definitely pass It ($327.4 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334.2 million) to snag fifth before it’s done. There’s probably not enough left in the tank to surpass Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($389.8 million) but there’s no shame in that, as this was a lot of found money for Sony even with its reported $110 million budget.
Second place goes to opening 12 Strong, the story of the first soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For unknown reasons, mid-late January seems to often bring a movie about recent wars, perhaps based on the successes of Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper (an Iraq War movie). 12 Strong earned $16.5 million on the weekend, which is just fine and perhaps a little ahead of expectations. Despite middling reviews (only 54% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes), there’s almost always going to be an audience for this sort of thing. And it had Chris Hemsworth, though I still doubt that most viewers of this movie could pick him out of a lineup when he’s not playing Thor. It had a reported budget of $35 million, and it should make that back by the time it’s done.
Den of Thieves takes third place with $15.3 million, and is a solid opening for a film seemingly tossed out there by STX Entertainment. With a top line cast of Gerard Butler, 50 Cent, and Ice Cube’s son and weak reviews, there was little indication this was actually going to sell any tickets. But still, it’s been a weird month, and the action thriller is, on paper at least, more interesting than anything else being released this month, so there you go.
The Post is in fourth with $12.1 million, down 37% from last weekend and has earned $45.1 million after two weekends in wide release. Currently the highest profile film set to get any notable Oscar nominations on Tuesday, that will help keep it afloat for a few more weekends and make it the third highest grossing film among expected Best Picture nominees (after Dunkirk and…Get Out).
Along with Jumanji, the other big surprise of January has been the run of The Greatest Showman, which in its fifth weekend, has again beaten its opening weekend. The Hugh Jackman musical earned $11 million for the weekend, its third straight spectacular hold (after increasing 76% in its second weekend, it has seen weekend declines of 11%, 9% and now 12%) and has earned $113 million since opening before Christmas with just $8.8 million (admittedly that contained Christmas Eve, which deflated the weekend total). There hasn’t been a film with old school legs like this in a while, and while films nearly always increase in that last week of December, they tend to fall off a cliff in January, but that hasn’t been the case with The Greatest Showman or Jumanji. The soundtrack is also the #1 selling album in the country, so it’s a winner on two fronts.
After a disappointing opening weekend, Paddington 2 holds well enough, dipping just 25% from last weekend to earn $8.2 million. It’s now got $25 million after two weekends, which is okay, but everything earned in North America is just a bonus as it was a tremendous hit in its native UK.
Liam Neeson’s The Commuter gets stuck in traffic on weekend two, dropping 51% from last weekend to $6.6 million and $25.7 million in two weekends. Paddington 2 is gonna pass it next weekend.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi hangs around in eighth place, passing the $600 million mark with $6.5 million for the weekend and $604.2 million total, a full $100 million ahead of Beauty and the Beast and solidly in sixth place all-time.
Insidious: The Last Key drops to ninth with another 52% decline to $5.9 million and has earned $58.7 million to date. Still the #1 film of 2018 (a gimmick I’m running with until Black Panther takes over that title next month, dammit), it’s yet another profitable Blumhouse production made on the cheap.
Forever My Girl wraps up the top ten this week with $4.7 million in just 1,115 theaters. It’s a country-themed Nicholas Sparks ripoff romance and that’s all I’ve got to say about that before I begin twitching uncontrollably.
This week’s top 12 films earned $114 million, down from last year’s $126.1 million when Split opened with $40 million. Next week we look for yet another 2018 film to actually be the top film of the weekend as here comes the thrilling(?) conclusion(?) to the Maze Runner saga, with The Death Cure.