'Jumanji' Has a Great Holiday, 'Downsizing' Gets Coal in Its Stocking
by EG
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi won its second weekend at the box office this week, while Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle turned in a very strong second-place finish. Downsizing, the satire starring Matt Damon, however, had a cheerless Christmas.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle are the biggest winners of the holiday box-office feast, while at the other end of the Christmas table Alexander Payne's Downsizing and the R-rated Father Figures are fighting for scraps.
Moviegoing always dips on Christmas Eve, but traffic will pick up in earnest later on Monday once presents are unwrapped. The corridor between Christmas Day and New Year's Day is the most lucrative stretch of the year. This year is especially important if the revenue gap at the domestic box office is to come in only 1 or 2 percent behind 2016's record $11.4 billion.
Disney and Lucasfilm's The Last Jedi grossed $100.7 million from 4,232 theaters for the long holiday weekend (Friday to Monday), pushing its domestic total to $397.3 million. Through Sunday, the film's global haul is a mighty $745.5 million after earning another $75.1 million this weekend from 54 foreign markets, helping Disney jump the $6 billion mark at the global box office for the second time — a feat no other studio has accomplished.
Domestically, The Last Jedi is trailing Star Wars: The Force Awakens by nearly $175 million, but the true barometer will be where Last Jedi's gross stands at the end of New Year's weekend. For the three-day weekend proper, the tentpole declined 67 percent, versus a mere 40 percent for Star Wars: The Force Awakens over the Dec. 25-27 weekend in 2016. Comparisons are complicated by Christmas Day falling on a Monday this year. Last year, Rogue One: A Star Wars story dipped 60 percent over the Dec. 23-25 weekend.
In a major win for Sony, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle overperformed in posting an impressive $67 million six-day debut from 3,765 theaters — it opened Wednesday alongside The Greatest Showman — to come in No. 2. The reboot, starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas and Bobby Cannavale, opens 22 years after the original Jumanji and launches a new franchise for Sony. The story follows three kids who are transported into the Jumanji video game where they become avatars.
"Every day of the run just gets better and better," says Sony worldwide president of marketing and distribution Josh Greenstein. "If you are looking for holiday cheer, Jumanji is the movie for you. The body-swapping concept feels so fresh and funny."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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