Source:
https://scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2132020/first-1998s-titanic-jumanji-returns-top-us-box-office-seven-weeks
Culture/ Film & TV

In a first since 1998’s Titanic, Jumanji tops US box office a second time, seven weeks after December release

Film starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan took in US$11 million for the recent three-day weekend, slipping past Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Film starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan took in US$11 million for the recent three-day weekend, slipping past Maze Runner: The Death Cure

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 US$11 million for the three-day weekend – as competition with American 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, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan, follows a group of teens who find themselves transported inside the video game world of Jumanji. Its US domestic cumulative take of just over US$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 US$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 US$9.3 million despite abysmal reviews.

Helen Mirren in a scene from Winchester. Photo: AP
Helen Mirren in a scene from Winchester. Photo: AP

Winchester, 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 10 per cent on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Even Mirren 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 US$7.8 million.

And in fifth was Entertainment Studios’ Hostiles, a gritty Western starring Christian Bale about a US cavalry officer who escorts a Cheyenne chief and his family to Montana in 1892. It took in an estimated US$5.5 million.

Rosamund Pike (left) and Christian Bale in a scene from Hostiles. Photo: AP
Rosamund Pike (left) and Christian Bale in a scene from Hostiles. Photo: AP

Rounding out the top 10 were: The Post (US$5.2 million), 12 Strong (US$4.7 million), Den of Thieves (US$4.7 million), The Shape of Water (US$4.3 million) and Paddington 2 (US$3.1 million).