Weekend Wrap-Up: Jumanji is Welcomed to the Top of the Chart with $37.23 million

January 9, 2018

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle held on strongly during the first weekend of 2018 earning $37.23 million. Insidious: The Last Key opened with $29.58 million, earning a solid second place. Overall, the box office pulled in $165 million, which is 15% lower than last weekend; however, last weekend was a holiday weekend, so this is a better than expected hold. More importantly, this is 21% better than the same weekend last year. 2018 has a small lead over 2017 at 7.1% to $306 million to $285 million. It has been a while since we’ve seen a lead in the year-over-year comparison, but obviously it is far too early for this lead to be meaningful.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle added $37.23 million during its third weekend of release and now has a total of $245.61 million. It will have no problem getting to $300 million domestically, which is more than enough to ensure profitability. In fact, it will make more domestically than a lot of people were thinking it would make worldwide. It is inarguably one of the biggest surprise hits of 2017.

Insidious: The Last Key isn’t going to win many awards, but it pulled in $29.58 million during its opening weekend, making it the second fastest opening film in the franchise. Some were expecting the film to have the worst opening in the franchise, so this is great news. On the other hand, its reviews are terrible and it earned a B minus from CinemaScore, so it likely won’t have good legs. It won’t need good legs, however, to justify yet another installment in the franchise.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi fell to third place with $23.73 million for a four-week total of $572.69 million. It could still get to $600 million by the end of the long weekend next week, but it is going to start losing theaters shortly.

The Greatest Showman held on really well with $13.77 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $76.88 million. Its chances of getting to $100 million definitely went up after this result.

Pitch Perfect 3 was next with $10.30 million over the weekend for a running tally of $86.06 million, also after three weeks of release. It will get to $100 million domestically before the end of its run, but not before it starts really losing theaters. While this is the end of the franchise in its current form, I could see the studio using the brand in the future for a series of Direct-to-Video releases.

Molly’s Game managed seventh place with $6.96 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $14.17 million. Perhaps if it can turn its reviews into Oscar nominations it will stick around in theaters for a while, but that’s not a likely scenario.

- Insidious: The Last Key Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, The Greatest Showman, Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi, Pitch Perfect 3, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Molly’s Game, Insidious: The Last Key, Insidious, Pitch Perfect