‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ ran to the front of the line at the weekend box office, taking in $23.5 million, which was close to what it was expected to do. It was slightly down from the opening of the previous chapter in the franchise, 2015’s ‘The Scorch Trials’. But after the year delay in ‘The Death Cure”s release due to Dylan O’Brien‘s on-set injury, the fanbase looks to have stuck with the series, which hasn’t been the case with a lot of YA brands, which saw sharp declines as they wear on (‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Divergent’). ‘The Death Cure’ previously opened in some foreign markets. With this domestic opening added, it’s made $105.5M, on a production budget of $60M, so not bad at all. The audience has given it a strong “B+” CinemaScore, but critics were not impressed with it ranking at 45% on Rotten Tomatoes. Wes Ball directed all three ‘Maze Runner’ movies.
This means that the previous box office champ ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ has slipped down to #2 after an impressive run. It took in an additional $16.4M bringing its six-week total to $338M, officially making it Sony’s third highest-grossing film ever, trailing behind just Sam Raimi’s first ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Spider-Man 2′.
Entertainment Studios’ western ‘Hostiles’ is coming in at between $9.9M-$10.2M, exceeding expectations. This movie, directed by Scott Cooper, starring Christian Bale, is mainly making waves in the “flyover states” where Entertainment Studios targeted it. Audiences have given it a “B” CinemaScore, while critics have also reacted favorably with ‘Hostiles’ ranking a strong 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. Predictably, the western is mainly drawing men.
Much like ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘The Greatest Showman’ continues chugging right along. In its sixth weekend, the musical made $9.5M bringing its total to $126.5M. If it keeps up the pace, it could out-perform other musicals ‘Les Miserables’ ($148.8M) and ‘La La Land’ ($151M). 20th Century Fox’s head of domestic distribution, Chris Aronson said “It’s a piece of populist entertainment that has caught on everywhere with a mix of family and Broadway fans. People are touched by this movie, touched by its message of inclusion and the sense of coming together. Then you have the ultra-charismatic Hugh Jackman.”
Award hopeful, ‘The Post’ managed to hang in at #5 with $8.85M.
- Maze Runner: Death Cure (20th Century Fox) – $23.5M
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Sony) – $16.4M
- Hostiles (EST) – $10.2M
- The Greatest Showman (20th Century Fox) – $9.5M
- The Post (20th Century Fox/Dreamworks) – $8.85M
Fox did extremely well this weekend, taking in a total of $52.1M. In addition to ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’, ‘The Greatest Showman’ and ‘The Post’, Academy Awards nominees ‘Ferdinand’, ‘The Shape of Water’ and ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ are also performing strongly, showing that Disney appears to have made a wise decision in acquiring the studio.
Next weekend looks pretty slow, so there probably won’t be much of a shakeup, but check back to see how things go.
Source: Deadline
