Something surprising happened on Monday. Despite having won the three-day race last weekend,Star Wars: The Last Jedifell toJumanji: Welcome to the Junglein the fourth day by a narrow margin. Of course,The Last Jedihas already made plenty of money - it’s currently the sixth most lucrative movie ever made, sandwiched betweenJoss Whedon’sAvengersandChristopher Nolan’sThe Dark Knight. That the movie ceded its place is less surprising than the fact thatJumanji, an amiable but empty comedy, is the movie that did it. Blame name recognition and the undeniable chemistry betweenKevin HartandDwayne Johnson, I suppose.
Jumanjiis now poised to take the top spot for this weekend box office round as well, but on Friday, it wasInsidious: The Last Key, the only major wide release of the weekend, that led the pack. The fourth installment in the Insidious franchise came in with $12.7 million on Friday, aboveJumanji’s $10.8 million take andThe Last Jedi’s $6.5 million, which landed theStar Warsepic in third. The margin betweenInsidiousandJumanjiis pretty narrow - less than $2 million - so the prognosticators could very well be on the mark on this one. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if Insidious is able to pull this one out, consideringJumanjiis already in its third frame at this point.
Below the top three, things remained the same for the most part. Ferdinand, as expected, got kicked down to the lower five whileThe Greatest Showmanheld steady in fourth with $4.1 million to add onto its $67.2 million domestic earnings. Thanks to relatively strong showings overseas to the tune of $44 million, the sugar-doused biopic-musical of notorious conmanP.T. Barnum’s rise to prominence has become something of a minor hit. Similar things could be said aboutPitch Perfect 3, which came in at number five with $3.3 million on Friday. The sequel will likely touch $90 million by the end of the weekend, clearing the path for a $100 million domestic take within the next two weekends. It might be small peanuts compared to the gigantic success ofJumanjiandStar Warsbut for a movie that cost less than $50 million, its a notable triumph.
Here’s your top five for Friday:
Friday Domestic BO
Total Domestic BO
1. ‘Insidious: The Last Key’
$12,743,000
- ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’
$10,800,000
$219,172,666
3. ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’
$6,584,000
$555,546,602
4. ‘The Greatest Showman’
$4,175,000
$67,279,372
5. ‘Pitch Perfect 3’
$3,320,000
$79,077,090
