Despite a 25% decline compared to the opening for its predecessor, Fox's
Maze Runner: The Death Cure still managed a #1 finish at the weekend box office. Meanwhile, Entertainment Studios saw
Hostiles deliver a solid performance as it expanded nationwide, Sony's
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and
The Greatest Showman continue to hold strong,
The Shape of Water expands with strong numbers on the heels of its 13 Oscar nominations and Viva's
Padmaavat secures a spot in the top ten despite playing in just 324 theaters. All told, the weekend's top twelve was still down ~7% compared to last year as January has slowed to a crawl.
With an estimated $23.5 million Fox's Maze Runner: The Death Cure topped the weekend box office. Carrying the largest budget of the three films ($62m) in the franchise, while not an unexpected debut, it remains a disappointing one as Death Cure comes in ~$7 million behind the debut for Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and $9 million behind the first film, which debuted in September 2014. Based on these numbers it becomes clear the franchise failed to gain much of an audience outside the core fanbase and the on-set injury to star Dylan O'Brien, which delayed the film's release by nearly a year, didn't help either.
Like Scorch Trials, Death Cure received a "B+" CinemaScore and for the most part the film played similarly across gender lines to its two predecessors with females making up 51% of the total audience. However, it did play slightly older than both the first and second film with 43% of the audience coming in at 25 years or older compared to 33% for Scorch Trials and 36% for the first film.
Internationally, Death Cure began playing overseas last weekend, bringing in $15 million from four markets. This weekend it added nearly 70 markets and brought in an estimated $62.7 million pushing its worldwide cume to $105.5 million.
Finishing in second, and showing no signs of slowing down, is Sony's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which falls to the runner-up position after three weeks in a row atop the box office, but does it in style. The film dropped just 16% this weekend, bringing in an estimated $16.4 million as its domestic cume climbs over $338 million. Not only has Jumanji now passed Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334.2m), but it has also passed Spider-Man 3 to become Sony's third largest domestic release of all-time.
Internationally, the film added an estimated $17.7 million this weekend bringing its international gross to $484 million for a worldwide cume reaching a massive $822 million. From a global perspective, the film is now Sony's fifth largest all time, passing Spider-Man which grossed $821.7 million globally.
Landing in third and more than doubling Mojo's forecast is Entertainment Studios's Hostiles. The film expanded nationwide this weekend into 2,816 locations (+2,697) and brought in an estimated $10.2 million. While this is a bit shy of the studio's bullish $12 million expectations, it shows some of the positive signals we were seeing in advance of release weren't false. With only a "B" CinemaScore it will be interesting to see how the film performs looking forward, but if it can deliver this result at the same time Oscar nominees are gaining so much attention it could hold on with decent numbers next weekend, though its core demo of 25+ males might be a hard sell over Super Bowl weekend.
Fox's The Greatest Showman lands in fourth place and simply refuses to vacate the weekend top five. Dropping just 11% this weekend the film brought in an estimated $9.5 million bringing its domestic cume to $126.4 million. Since going wide on December 20, The Greatest Showman has remained in the top five at the weekend box office and has also delivered four consecutive weekend grosses larger than its opening weekend of $8.8 million, as word of mouth continues to spread. Internationally, the film added an estimated $10 million this weekend bringing its worldwide cume to $259.5 million.
Making it three out of top five for the studio, Fox's The Post rounds out the top five after bringing in an estimated $8.85 million. The Steven Spielberg-directed film was nominated for two Oscars this past week, including Best Picture and Best Actress (Meryl Streep), and has now grossed $58.5 million domestically. The film also added five new international markets this weekend where it grossed an estimated $10.2 million, including a #1 debut in France with $3 million. The film's international cume thus far stands at $24.5 million.
Outside the top five we find The Shape of Water, which received the year's most Oscar nominations with 13, which certainly helped its box office prospects. The film expanded into 1,854 theaters (+1,001) and brought in an estimated $5.7 million bringing the film's domestic total to $37.6 million. Internationally the film played in ten markets this weekend and brought in an estimated $3.2 million, pushing its worldwide cume to $51.5 million.
And rounding out the top ten is a stellar performance from Viva's Padmaavat, which kicked off its weekend in 295 IMAX locations on Thursday with $507k and added another 29 locations over the weekend to finish with an estimated $4.2 million for a chart-topping average of $13,188 per theater. The film's performance breaks the all-time record for the largest Bollywood opening in North America previously held by P.K.s $3.56 million from 2014.
Outside the top ten we find a flurry of Oscar nominees beginning with Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, which brought in an estimated $3.6 million bringing its domestic cume to $37 million; I, Tonya delivered an estimated $2.9 million from 960 locations for a domestic cume now totaling $18.8 million; Focus's Phantom Thread brought in $2.89 million for a cume of $10.6 million; Darkest Hour delivered $2.1 million for a cume topping $45 million; Lady Bird brought in $1.9 million as it continues to pad its lead as A24's highest grossing film of all-time, now totaling nearly $42 million.
Disney and Pixar's Best Animation contender Coco added an estimated $1.48 million to a domestic cume that now totals $202.7 million and Sony Classics' four-time Oscar nominee, including Best Picture, Call Me by Your Name brought in $1.34 million as its domestic total now tops $11 million. In addition to its domestic performance, Call Me by Your Name brought in $1.7 million internationally bringing its worldwide cume to $17.5 million.
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # |
| 1 | N | Maze Runner: The Death Cure | Fox | $24,167,011 | - | 3,787 | - | $6,382 | $24,167,011 | $62 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | Sony | $16,144,874 | -17.2% | 3,553 | -151 | $4,544 | $337,802,077 | $90 | 6 |
| 3 | 23 | Hostiles | ENTMP | $10,110,739 | +1,642.4% | 2,816 | +2,697 | $3,590 | $11,958,534 | - | 6 |
| 4 | 5 | The Greatest Showman | Fox | $9,550,367 | -10.3% | 2,663 | -160 | $3,586 | $126,525,599 | $84 | 6 |
| 5 | 4 | The Post | Fox | $9,107,141 | -22.3% | 2,640 | -211 | $3,450 | $58,793,064 | $50 | 6 |
| 6 | 2 | 12 Strong | WB | $8,686,066 | -45.1% | 3,018 | +16 | $2,878 | $29,810,676 | - | 2 |
| 7 | 3 | Den of Thieves | STX | $8,632,808 | -43.2% | 2,432 | - | $3,550 | $28,775,253 | - | 2 |
| 8 | 16 | The Shape of Water | FoxS | $5,922,553 | +170.9% | 1,854 | +1,001 | $3,194 | $37,901,298 | - | 9 |
| 9 | 6 | Paddington 2 | WB | $5,668,433 | -29.2% | 2,792 | -910 | $2,030 | $32,118,849 | - | 3 |
| 10 | N | Padmaavat | VPD | $4,430,255 | - | 324 | - | $13,674 | $4,937,521 | - | 1 |
