“Jumanji” Rules the Box Office Jungle Once Again

By Kip Mooney • On • In Featured, Weekend Box Office Report Featured, Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

January 12-14, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle  $27.0 million
The Post $18.6 million
The Commuter $13.4 million
Insidious: The Last Key $12.1 million
The Greatest Showman $11.8 million

While Star Wars: The Last Jedi dominated the box office and online conversation all throughout the holiday, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle quietly became one of the 10 biggest movies of the past year. While met with initial skepticism, the reception from audiences has been extremely positive. The sequel of sorts to the 1996 original has topped the box office for the last two weeks after occupying the No. 2 spot for the two weeks before that. It just now experienced its biggest drop, a mere 27.4 percent, and has already made more money than Despicable Me 3, Justice League, Logan and The Fate of the Furious. When it's all said and done, it could be the fifth-biggest movie of 2017.

The Post expanded impressively, moving up to No. 2 in its first weekend of wide release. Steven Spielberg's extremely timely drama made an excellent $18.6 million. That's just below what his big-time flop The BFG opened with over July 4th Weekend 2016. If it performs like Lincoln did in 2012, it could be one of Spielberg's biggest non-franchise movies ever.

The Commuter arrived at No. 3. The latest collaboration between Liam Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra performed better than Run All Night (2015), but nowhere near as good as Unknown (2011) or Non-Stop (2014). That means it should do between $26 and $63 million. Insidious: The Last Key is currently the lowest of the franchise, but should be No. 2 by next weekend. And The Greatest Showman has continued to perform like the crowd-pleaser it is, and should be the 32nd or 33rd movie of 2017 to cross $100 million (depending on if Pitch Perfect 3 makes it there first).

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Phantom Thread came out on top since The Post expanded. In its third weekend of limited release (though it added some theaters), the Paul Thomas Anderson period drama averaged $18,468 on its 62 screens.
  • Neither Paddington 2 (with its 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) nor Proud Mary (with its big star and online support) managed to crack the top 5. The former made $10.6 million while the latter made an estimated $10 million. Both should do better on home video and streaming.
  • After its big showing at the Golden Globes, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri expanded back into wide release. Now playing on more than 1,000 screens, the controversial dramedy has made more than $28.5 million.

Next weekend:

12 Strong takes on Den of Thieves. Unfortunately, both movies are competing for the same audience, so only one can win. Even though both films have 2016 corollaries (that flopped), I think 12 Strong will do much better than 13 Hours, with an estimated $22 million. Den of Thieves won't do much better than Triple 9, with only $10 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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