‘Jumanji’ claws its way back to top of North American box office
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” the first December film to win a February weekend since 1998. Image: CTMG/AFP
Sony’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” managed the rare feat this weekend of regaining the No.1 spot in North American box offices in its seventh week out, according to industry estimates.
Taking in $11 million for the three-day weekend — as competition with football’s Super Bowl depressed ticket sales — “Jumanji” became the first film since “Titanic,” in 1998, to win a February weekend after a nationwide release in December, HollywoodReporter.com reported.
The family flick, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart, follows a group of teens who find themselves transported inside the video game world of Jumanji. Its domestic cumulative take of just over $350 million makes it only the third Sony film to reach that mark.
Last weekend’s North American leader, Fox’s “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” slipped to second place with a take of $10.2 million, according to the Exhibitor Relations website. The dystopian sci-fi film follows the harrowing adventures of three teens who have survived a destructive virus infecting the world.
In third spot was a new release, “Winchester” from Lionsgate, with takings of $9.3 million despite abysmal reviews.
The movie, a gothic thriller, was inspired by the real-life story of Sarah Winchester, the 19th-century heiress to the Winchester gun-making fortune, who built an enormous, spookily elaborate mansion in California to appease the spirits of people killed by her family’s firearms.
Despite the draw of Helen Mirren in the title role, the film scored a paltry 9 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Even she could not “class up… this super-silly feature,” The New York Times said.
Fox’s “The Greatest Showman,” with Hugh Jackman as larger-than-life circus impresario P.T. Barnum, clung to fourth spot, taking in $7.8 million.
And in fifth was Entertainment Studios’ “Hostiles,” starring Christian Bale in a gritty Western about a US cavalry officer who escorts a Cheyenne chief and his family to Montana in 1892. It took in an estimated $5.5 million.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
“The Post” ($5.2 million)
“12 Strong” ($4.7 million)
“Den of Thieves” ($4.7 million)
“The Shape of Water” ($4.3 million)
“Paddington 2” ($3.1 million)
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