With no new movies in wide release this weekend, Disney’sStar Wars: The Last Jediwas largely expected to come out on top for a third weekend in a row, to close out the year that was 2017. In a year full of surprises, including the worst summer movie season on record in over a decade, the last weekend of the year didn’t provide any surprises, withThe Last Jedirepeating atop the box office for a third weekend in a row, with $52.4 million. This tally putsThe Last Jediover the $500 million domestic mark, with its cumulative total now at $517.1 million, making it the highest-grossing movie of the year, as expected.
As of now,Star Wars: The Last Jedihas taken in $517.1 million domestic and $523.3 million internationally for a worldwide total of $1.04 billion. As of now, the domestic total is enough to overtake Disney’sBeauty and the Beastand its $504 million total as the top domestic movie, but it still has some work to do to surpass the movie’s $1.2 billion worldwide tally. That should most likely happen sometime this coming week, making this the thirdStar Wars moviein a row to be the top-grossing movie of the year, following in the footsteps ofStar Wars: The Force AwakensandRogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Given the lack of any new competition, all of the holdovers benefited from the last weekend of the year, with six movies in the top 10 actually posting increases from the previous weekend, and the rest posting minimal decreases.Star Wars: The Last Jedionly dropped 26.7%, remaining in 4,232 theaters and posting a $12,393 per-screen average in its third frame in theaters. Sony’sJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, starringDwayne The Rock Johnson, remained in second place with an impressive $50.5 million, a 38.9% increase over the previous weekend, withPitch Perfect 3staying put in third place with $17.7 million, just a 10.8% drop from last weekend. The top 5 is rounded out byThe Greatest Showmanwith $15.2 million, posting an impressive 73.4% increase from last weekend, andFerdinandwith $11.6 million, a 59.2% increase from last weekend.
The top 10 is rounded out byPixar’s Coco($6.5 million),All the Money in the World($5.5 million),Darkest Hour($5.2 million),Downsizing$4.6 million) andFather Figures($3.7 million). Also opening in limited release is STX’sMolly’s Game, which earned $2.3 million from 271 theaters for a decent $8,598 per-screen average, while Focus’Phantom Threadearned $220,000 from just four theaters for an impressive $55,000 per-screen average and Sony Pictures Classics’Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpoolearning $36,048 from four theaters for a $9,012 per-screen average.
Next weekend marks the first of 2018, with only one new movie opening in wide release, theInsidious sequelentitledInsidious: The Last Key, with Rialto’sBob Le Flambeur, Well Go USA’sGoldbuster, Film Movement’sIn Betweenand Independent’sProject Edenopening in limited release. Be sure to check back on Tuesday for next week’s predictions, and again on Sunday for the top 10 estimates. Until then, check out the top 10 estimates for the weekend of December 29, courtesy ofBox Office Mojo.
