The Weekend Report

Star Wars: The Last Jedi dominated with an estimated $68.8 million box office for the three-day portion of the weekend (all figures reflect three-day grosses). Five new movies leapt into the holiday melee to mixed results.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ranked second with $34 million (plus $16.6 million from pre-weekend box office) and Pitch Perfect 3 with $20.4 million. More problematic was musical The Greatest Showman, which opened with $8.4 million following a Wednesday bow that generated $4.6 million. Casualties were the diminutive Downsizing with $4.6 million, and the seasonal raunch comedy Father Figures, which struggled to $3.1 million.

Exclusive debuts were dominated by The Post with stop-the-presses revenues of $490,000 from nine newsstands. Further back were the Austrian drama Happy End, which grossed $23,200 from three screens, and revisionist western Hostiles with a $19,100 return on three. The session also saw significant expansions for The Shape of Water and Darkest Hour, maintaining awards season prospects.

Bollywood made a comeback with Tiger Zinda Hai posting $1.6 million while Telugu titles Hello! and Middle Class Abbayi bowed on the soft side with respective weekends of $461,000 and $362,000. In Quebec, local comedy Le Trip a trois also had tepid response of $190,000. And China import Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds bowed with an excellent $160,000 from 17 screens.

Revenues for the frame exceeded $175 million and ebbed back 38% from last weekend largely as a result of a calendar that conflated holiday viewing and saw even behemoths including The Last Jedi experience sharper than anticipated declines. The current session also declined 5% from 2016 when the second weekend of Rogue One led with $96.1 million and newcomers Sing and Passengers followed with openings of $54.9 million and $22.7 million.

It’s taken 22 years to follow up on Jumanji, but initial returns for Welcome to the Jungle look encouraging for a more efficacious follow up. Studio exit demos identified the audience as 56% male with 55% aged 25-years and younger. The film opened in 53 foreign markets to an estimated $49 million plus including 28 territories in top spot. Top grossing nations included the UK with $10 million, a record-breaking $7.1 million in Malaysia and Russia opening to $4.8 million.

The unexpected success of Pitch Perfect in 2012 spawned an equally surprising franchise with ample clout to take on the unforgiving holiday brawl. It played to its base with an audience that was 69% female with 57% aged 25-years and younger. It had a more modest international launch in 14 territories that generated a $10 million tally dominated by the UK’s $5.9 million debut.

The anticipation for The Greatest Showman was buoyed by the musical revival of La La Land (with that film’s lyricists in tow for the Barnum tuner). However, critical response has been tepid. On the domestic side it drew an older crowd that was 67% aged 25-years and older with females accounting for 63% of viewers. The film bowed day-and-date in just three overseas markets in Asia with South Korea accounting for $2.8 million of its $4 million box office.

Also suffering mixed response was Downsizing with audiences puzzled by its open-ended conclusion. It also skewed older with plus 30-year olds comprising 60% of the audience and a slight male tilt of 51%.

Father Figures proved not to be the alternative movie its studio had hoped. Its crowd was 53% male with 75% 25 and older.

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