• Good weekend – 8 movies in million dollar plus club
A massive weekend saw the top 20 movies return $24.74m with box office down only 10% on the previous weekend’s record haul. It has been a good few weeks at the movies with three of the past four weekends hitting $25m.
While the top three movies accounted for just over half of all ticket sales, there was plenty of heavy lifting elsewhere too with a total of eight movies taking more then $1m.
A record weekend heatwave across several states could have helped fan audiences into air-conditioned cinemas around the country.
Two new releases made the top five while the hottest film at the Golden Globes debuted at #7 on less than 100 screens.
Twelve months ago the weekends for the weeks ending January 4 and 11 saw similar box office grosses of $28.37m and $23.86m.
#1 Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle $6.40m
For its second weekend the release added 11 screens to 477 as total weekend takings slowed 31%. The weekend average dropped from $19,791 to $13,437. Total earn to-date is $27.55m, which means it should earn enough to score a spot in the top 10 films of 2018 unless there are some seriously big earners that will raise the cut-off point which has been just under $30m for the past few years.
#2 Pitch Perfect 3 $4.64m
It’s hard to think of a Hollywood star – Aussie or otherwise – who attracted more attention this year in Australia than Rebel Wilson. The box office numbers were down for Pitch Perfect 3, which opened on 470 screens with a screen average just under $10,000. It was still a strong performance for the third instalment of a franchise after Pitch Perfect 2 claimed $9.41m on its opening weekend in May 2015.
#3 Star Wars: The Last Jedi $3.01m
Weekend four for Stars Wars VIII with ticket sales slowing 51% and a total take sitting on $51.37m. That means the movie has earned more than any other on the highest opening weekend list other than Star Wars: The Force Awakens. With a $93.93m total, its unlikely The Last Jedi will catch it from here! The Last Jedi now ranks #8 on the all-time box office list for Australia and could climb as high as #3 if it scrapes together another $6m to sit behind only Avatar ($115m) and The Force Awakens.
#4 The Greatest Showman $2.94m
Solid second weekend amongst some heavy-hitters with total earnings now over $12m. Screens showing the movie only dropped by five to 323 with screen average on $9,132 as weekend gross slowed by 32%.
All The Money In The World
#5 All The Money In The World $1.46m
Another cracker of a movie from Ridley Scott with Christopher Plummer hastily called in to replace Kevin Spacey. The new release opened on 223 screens, earning the lowest screen average in the top five – $6,584.
Plenty of action outside the top five too with three other movies in the million dollar club across the weekend:
#6 Coco $1.33m (After two weekends, total is on $6.01m)
#7 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri $1.08m (Cleaned up big time at the Golden Globes. After it opened on just 84 screens with the weekend’s second-best screen average – $12,949 – will distributors push it out wider?)
#8 Ferdinand $1.05m (After four weekends the total is on $9.38m)