Monday, January 1, 2018

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Rules Last Box Office Frame of 2017 As X-Mas 2017 Releases (Mostly) Flourish And We Look At The 2017 Box Office As A Whole

First off, my apologies for not having a box office column up last week, it's been quite busy around here for myself and time for writing has just slipped away. Anywho, let's look at what's been going on at the box office this weekend, starting with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was the top title at the box office for the third weekend in a row by grossing $52.4 million, the fifth biggest third weekend of all-time and a 26% dip from last weekend, one of the smallest third weekend declines on record for a movie that opened to over $100 million and a better third weekend hold than The Force Awakens. With $517.1 million in 17 days, as well as just over $1 billion worldwide, it's now the biggest movie of 2017 domestically and seems to be on track for a $640-650 million domestic total.



Rey and company's newest adventure was one of only three titles to decrease from last weekend in the top ten as everything else went noticeably up. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle was actually not too far behind those Stars of Wars as it grossed a massive $50.5 million this weekend, a 39% increase from last weekend and the fourth smallest second-weekend decline ever for a movie opening in over 3,000 theaters. With $169.8 million in the bank already, this one will handily become the first non-Spider-Man/James Bond movie to crack $200 million for Sony/Columbia since Hancock in July 2008. Insanely impressive stuff, this one's easily one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2017.

Pitch Perfect 3 was another member of the trio of films to decrease from last weekend, as it eased 11% to gross another $17.7 million for a $64.2 million. This one's running heavily behind Pitch Perfect 2, to the point that it still hasn't managed to match that movies opening weekend after ten days of release, but this one cost only $45 million, so nobody at Unversal is losing sleep over this one.The Greatest Showman, after a weak start last weekend, actually increased phenomenally this frame by going up to $15.2 million, a 73% increase from its opening weekend that stands as by far the smallest second-weekend drop for a movie opening in over 3,000 theaters, dethroning Cheaper By The Dozen 2, which has held the record for 12 years. In 12 days, this one's already grossed $48.7 million and looks to be on track for an $80 million domestical total, which, though not ideal, is a solid haul for an original family movie musical released in a marketplace crawling with family movies.

Speaking of family movies that improved mightily on their box office grosses from one weekend ago, Ferdinand went up 59% to gross another $11.6 million. That's a strong increase, but it still brings this one's domestic haul up to only $53.8 million after seventeen days of release. At least the first foreign box office figures do look solid for this title, which is gonna need such international grosses to become profitable given that it's on track for a domestic total of only $75-ish million. Going up 22% from last weekend was Coco, which grossed $6.6 million for a domestic total that now stands at $178.9 million. All The Money In The World, in its first full three-day weekend after opening on Monday, grossed $5.4 million over the weekend, an underwhelming debut that brings this one up to a $12.6 million domestic gross, though, to be fair, given the heavy-duty last-minute reshoots that occurred here, this is the rare title where merely existing may be counted as a victory regardless of the box office.

Winston Churchill is making money everywhere from the landing grounds to the beaches (look, my puns are gonna be like the 100 Floors of Frights, they're not all gonna be winners, OK?) as it grossed $5.2 million from 943 theaters for a per-theater average of $5,599. This one's made $17.9 million in its domestic run so far and is becoming quite the mainstream box office success and could crack $30 million in its domestic run. And now we come to the final movie this weekend to descend from its gross last weekend and that movie in question is Downsizing, which is officially one of the year's more high-profile bombs as it dropped 7% from last weekend to gross only $4.6 million. In ten days, Alexander Payne's latest movie has only grossed $17 million and may barely crack $25 million in its entire domestic run. Rounding out the top ten was fellow Christmas 2017 box office bomb Father Figures, which at least increased from last weekend by going up 13% and grossing $3.7 million for a $12.7 million domestic gross so far. This one is unlikely to gross over $20 million domestically, an abysmal result.

The Shape of Water continues to perform well in wide release as it added another $3.4 million, a 16% increase from last weekend,  to its domestic total that now stands at $15.6 million. With this one continuing to generate plenty of awards attention, don't be surprised if Guillermo Del Toro's latest movie ends up hitting as much as $35 million domestically. Meanwhile, Wonder managed to expand back into 1,193 theaters this weekend after going down to just 794 locations on Christmas Day and it managed to gross another $3.2 million, a massive 63% increase over last weekend. This one's managed to gross $121.5 million so far and is on track for a domestic total in between $130 and $135 million.


Molly's Game also bowed this weekend after playing during after opening on Christmas Day. Playing in 271 theaters, it grossed a robust $2.3 million for a per theater average of $8,598. This one's managed to gross a strong $5.2 million after seven days of limited release. It'll be interesting to see if the bigger than expected sum of cash it's accumulated in the last seven days will help translate into a similarly hefty wide release opening weekend when it goes into wide release on Friday or if this is one of the many titles out there that couldn't translate limited release success into mainstream box office success.

Lady Bird may have fallen out of wide release, as it's now playing in 392 theaters, but it's still going strong as it grossed another $1.4 million, a 42% increase from last weekend, for a domestic haul of $31.3 million. This one became A24's biggest movie of all-time last weekend and it doesn't look like it's done making money at the domestic box office yet! November 2017 feature Justice League went up about 23% to gross another $1.3 million this frame for a $225.6 million domestic total so far, looks like this one's headed for a final domestic cume in between $230 and $232 million. Thor: Ragnarok grossed another $1 million this frame, a 20% jump from last weekend, and has now grossed $311.3 million domestically. The Disaster Artist, which got knocked out of wide release last weekend, grossed another $951,982 this weekend, meaning this James Franco directorial effort has now grossed $17.8 million. The jury's still out if this solid box office performer will end up as only the fifth movie ever from A24 to gross over $20 million domestically.

Surprisingly, one of the few movies at the box office this weekend to decrease from last weekend was Call Me by Your Name, which eased 5% to gross another $702,098 from 115 theaters for a per-theater average of $6,105 and a domestic total so far of $4.6 million so far. In its fourth weekend of release, I, Tonya continued its solid box office run by grossing another $661,603 from 49 theaters. This one went up 60% from last weekend despite increasing its theater count by only 17% (it played in 49 locations this weekend after playing in 42 theaters last weekend and had a per-theater average this weekend of $13,502), a good sign that this one's got good word-of-mouth working in its favor. Oh, and real quickly, worth mentioning that Murder On The Orient Express went up 20% from last weekend and grossed $625,000, which was enough to push its domestic cume past the $100 million mark. Very impressive stuff, especially when combined with its robust overseas box office performance. This is director Kenneth Branagh's third directorial effort from the last six years to cross $100 million domestically!

Steven Spielberg's new drama, The Post, continued to do strong box office, increasing from its remarkable opening weekend by amassing another $539,440 from only 9 locations for a per-theater average of $59,938. With $1.7 million in just ten days, The Post looks like it could be poised for greater box office success when it starts to expand its theater count on Friday. Also doing mighty business in limited release was The Phantom Thread, which, over its first full three-day box office weekend (this one debuted on Monday), grossed $220,000 from 4 locations for a per-theater average of $55,000. Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool debuted this weekend to underwhelming box office, grossing just $36,048 from 4 locations for a per-theater average of only $9,012. Also doing subpar limited release box office was Hostiles, which grossed $35,714 (a 56% increase from last weekend) from 5 locations for a per-theater average of only $7,143 and a domestic total of only $88,006.

The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed $180 million, making it the fourth biggest final weekend of any given year and that sum was enough to push the 2017 box office to a total yearly gross of $11 billion, making it the third year in a row where the yearly box office has crossed the $11 billion threshold.

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