Despite some monster hits, the box office for 2017 was overall down compared to 2016 - but at least 2018 is starting off on the right foot. Not only is there a new movie to crown as box office king, but the first wide release of the year actually managed to score a nice chunk of cash. Check out the numbers for Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle and Insidious: The Last Key, as well as the rest of the Top 10 below!
Sony Pictures took a very real risk releasing Jake Kasdan's Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle just five days after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but it has definitely worked out for them in the long run. In its first two weeks the film was kept in the number two position, while continuing to bring in good totals, but with the arrival of 2018 came a shift. The adventure sequel is now the number one movie in America, and to date has brought in an impressive $244.4 million domestically ($519.4 worldwide).
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is a nice win for Sony, given that the film had a reasonable $90 million budget, and definitely a highlight in a year that was lacking in really solid family-friendly big screen fare. There is also now a very good chance that another movie will soon be made, and the franchise continues to blossom. It would certainly make sense for star Dwayne Johnson, as while he is a part of many successful blockbusters, the new hit will soon become his most successful feature domestically not part of the Fast and Furious brand (it only needs $4 million more before it surpasses Moana).
The jump made by Jumanji 2 is the big box office news from the past three days, but the numbers put up by Insidious: The Last Key are worth an approving head-nod. Like most Blumhouse Productions, the fourth chapter in the Insidious series wasn't made with a enormous budget (a reported $10 million before marketing), and the film has already made three times that. In fact, it the total box office grows to five times the budget when you factor in the $20 million from foreign markets. Here in the United States, it's actually the second most successful opening in the series, behind only the $40 million that James Wan's Insidious: Chapter 2 made in 2013. It should be noted that the movie didn't do all that well critically, and only earned a B- CinemaScore, which means that it might not exactly be ready to start a long, successful run - but really it's already made all the money it needs.
As you can see on the chart, Insidious: The Last Key was the only new wide release for the first weekend of 2018, but some theatrical expansions did shake things up a bit in the Top 10. After only hitting a few cinemas before the end of the year (qualifying for Academy Award consideration), Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game moved into 1,337 more theaters, and went from 13th place to number seven. Joe Wright's Darkest Hour also made an impressive push, nearly doubling its reach and seeing its numbers go up nearly 19 percent compared to last week.
January is famously one of the slowest months of the calendar year in Hollywood, but there is a nice and interesting trio of new releases set to hit theaters this Friday. Paul King's Paddington 2, Jaume Collet-Serra's The Commuter, and Babak Najafi's Proud Mary are all going to shake things up, so check back with us next Sunday to see how things all work out.
