Early Weekend Estimates: ‘The Last Jedi’ Becomes Highest Earner of 2017 Domestically, ‘Jumanji’ Wins the 4-Day Weekend

Sunday Update: It was a weekend with two different winners. Star Wars: The Last Jedi eked out a slight win for the 3-day F-S-S weekend, as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle appears to have won the 4-day weekend when factoring in New Year’s Day Monday.

The Last Jedi earned $52.4 million over the 3-day, just beating out Jumanji‘s $50.5 million. But a big boost on Monday allowed Jumanji to claim the extended 4-day weekend title with $67.0 million, ahead of Jedi‘s $65.5 million.

Last Jedi will have only held the top spot for two frames, down from three frames for 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and four frames for 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Credit this to a combination of a steeper drops for Last Jedi as word of mouth has been much more divisive than this decade’s other films in the franchise, plus a fantastic hold for Jumanji which is performing better than almost anybody expected pre-release.

 Still, there was a fantastic piece of news for Jedi this weekend, as it overtook Beauty and the Beast to become the highest-grossing domestic release from 2017.

The last time that two different films claimed the weekend leader title on the same weekend? The weekend of August 30, 2013, when One Direction: This Is Us led on the 3-day but The Butler led on the 4-day when factoring in that Labor Day Monday.

See below for our updated 4-day weekend numbers and further analysis.

— written by Boxoffice staff writer Jesse Rifkin


Saturday Report: Star Wars: The Last Jedi scored another $19.064 million on Friday, bringing its 15-day domestic cume to a massive $483.8 million. That puts the blockbuster 23 percent ahead of where last year’s Rogue One stood at the same point in release, while coming in an expected 29.5 percent behind The Force Awakens‘ 15-day total. For the four-day weekend, we’re currently projecting a take around $70 million.

With Friday’s gross, The Last Jedi surpassed the lifetime haul of The Phantom Menace ($474.5 million) to become the tenth highest grossing domestic release of all-time. Finding Dory ($486.3 million) and the Beauty and the Beast live action remake ($504 million) are next on the list of films that Jedi will pass this weekend, which will also officially make it the #1 film of 2017 in the process. Rogue One ($532.2 million) and The Dark Knight ($534.9 million) will likewise soon be eclipsed as Last Jedi is on course to become the sixth highest grossing North American release of all-time by sometime Monday or Tuesday.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle continues to perform in line with our pre-release breakout expectations, adding another $17.75 million on Friday to bring its ten-day domestic haul up to a strong $137 million. By comparison, the sequel is pacing 18 percent ahead of the ten-day gross of 2006’s Night at the Museum. Friday’s gross was also impressively up 42 percent from last Friday’s gross, per studio notes. Sony is projecting a four-day weekend between $66.5 million and $70 million, giving the smash hit a realistic shot at challenging The Last Jedi for the top spot across the three-day and/or four-day weekend.

Pitch Perfect 3 ($6.6 million), The Greatest Showman ($5.37 million), and Ferdinand ($4.5 million) rounded out the top five yesterday, while Coco took in another $2.828 million in sixth place.

Meanwhile, The Shape of Water added $1.17 million in semi-wide release for an updated total of $13.3 million, while Steven Spielberg’s The Post saw another $171,472 come in from its nine locations yesterday and now stands at $1.37 million from its platform release thus far.

A mix of four-day weekend estimates from both the studios and our own projections are below. Updated studio estimates will follow throughout the weekend.

(Note: % changes in the table below reflect the current weekend’s four-day estimates compared to last weekend’s three-day grosses.)

— written by Boxoffice Chief Analyst Shawn Robbins

WIDE (1000+)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle $67,000,000 87% 3,765 0 $17,795 $186,255,967 2 Sony / Columbia
2 Star Wars: The Last Jedi $65,600,000 -2% 4,232 0 $15,500 $530,207,899 3 Disney
3 Pitch Perfect 3 $22,740,000 20% 3,468 21 $6,557 $69,230,470 2 Universal
4 The Greatest Showman $20,300,000 131% 3,316 310 $6,121 $53,815,986 2 Fox
5 Ferdinand $15,150,000 113% 3,337 -293 $4,540 $57,310,105 3 Fox
6 Coco $8,800,000 86% 2,104 -7 $4,182 $181,172,459 6 Disney
7 All the Money in the World $7,210,000 2,074 $3,476 $14,370,000 1 Sony / TriStar
8 Downsizing $6,000,000 17% 2,664 -4 $2,252 $18,458,365 2 Paramount
9 Father Figures $4,500,000 37% 2,902 0 $1,551 $13,535,000 2 Warner Bros.
10 Wonder (2017) $4,250,000 132% 1,193 63 $3,562 $122,558,865 7 Lionsgate
11 Justice League $1,600,000 3% 1,101 0 $1,453 $225,962,000 7 Warner Bros.

 

LIMITED (100 — 999)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Darkest Hour $7,700,000 98% 943 137 $8,165 $20,347,287 6 Focus Features
2 The Shape of Water $4,875,000 67% 756 30 $6,448 $17,015,155 5 Fox Searchlight
3 Molly’s Game $3,110,000 271 0 $11,476 $6,007,552 1 STX
4 Thor: Ragnarok $1,251,000 44% 540 -161 $2,316 $311,621,239 9 Disney
5 Daddy’s Home 2 $1,170,000 7% 770 -303 $1,519 $102,040,807 8 Paramount
6 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri $930,000 86% 266 -41 $3,496 $24,419,084 12 Fox Searchlight
7 Murder on the Orient Express (2017) $845,000 67% 391 -56 $2,161 $100,848,049 8 Fox
8 The Star $700,000 -55% 661 -445 $1,059 $40,327,925 7 Sony / Columbia

PLATFORM (1 — 99)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 The Post $765,000 47% 9 0 $85,000 $1,964,041 2 20th Century Fox
2 Hostiles $40,000 75% 5 2 $8,000 $92,293 2 Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
3 Marshall $13,000 18% 50 -58 $260 $9,470,725 12 Open Road