Weekend Box Office (December 13 - 15, 2019)
THIS WEEKEND Sony scored a blockbuster hit for the holiday season with the better-than-anticipated launch for its adventure sequel Jumanji: The Next Level which captured an estimated $60.1M this weekend. The PG-13 film earned mixed reviews but averaged a muscular $14,218 per theater from 4,227 locations. That was a bigger gross in three days than the $52.8M five-day debut of the last Jumanji in December 2017 right before Christmas.
Given the higher multiples for mid-December releases, this sequel may find itself reaching the $250M area by the end of its domestic run despite heavy action competition from next weekend's much-awaited arrival of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. With Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and co-stars back for another round, fans that had fun with the first one came out again for another trip back into the video game world. Legs are not expected to be like those of its predecessor which reached a $404.5M final, but global appeal over the holiday season will guarantee a major box office tally.
Overseas markets contributed $85.7M boosting the cume to $152.5M including Asian and European markets which debuted a week earlier. Global is $212.6M with lucrative holiday weeks ahead.
Disney's animation powerhouse Frozen II may have lost the box office crown for the weekend, but it did manage to shatter the $1 billion dollar mark globally in its fourth week of play. The domestic take dropped 46% to an estimated $19.2M this weekend boosting the cume to a stellar $366.5M crashing into the all-time Top 50 at number 48. With the whole holiday season ahead and schools closing soon for the winter break, the Elsa pic has a shot at climbing to the neighborhood of $450M by the end of the run which would be in the all-time Top 20.
Overseas markets pulled in another $55.7M this weekend pumping the offshore take to $666M for a worldwide gross to date of an amazing $1.033 billion. It's the sixth billion-dollar smash for Disney in 2019 with Skywalker to become the seventh. No other studio has ever come close to a feat like this.
The murder mystery Knives Out held up well again on its way into the $100M club and grossed an estimated $9.3M dropping 35%. Lionsgate has banked $78.9M so far in North America and $162.2M worldwide.
Two new releases targeting different audiences got off to slow starts this weekend, but will hope to reach more moviegoers as the holidays approach.
Clint Eastwood's latest offering Richard Jewell saw an opening of an estimated $5M from 2,502 sites for a soft $1,998 average. With some awards buzz and an older target audience, this Warner Bros. title could keep going through the holiday season. Universal launched its horror film Black Christmas on Friday the 13th and generated an estimated $4.4M debut from 2,625 locations for a weak $1,684 average.
In its fifth weekend, Ford v Ferrari dropped 38% to an estimated $4.1M giving Fox a solid $98.2M to date. Universal's Queen & Slim fell 46% to an estimated $3.6M for $33.2M overall. Tom Hanks saw his film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood collect an estimated $3.4M, off 36%, putting Sony at $49.3M.
The Mark Ruffalo film Dark Waters took in an estimated $2M, down 50%, and has taken in $8.9M thus far for Focus. STX rounded out the top ten with its action release 21 Bridges which fell 59% to an estimated $1.2M for a cume of $26.4M.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $112.2M which was up 11% from last year when Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse debuted at number one with $35.4M; but down a sharp 58% from 2017 when Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened on top with $220M which at the time was the second biggest opening weekend of all-time.
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| # | Title | Dec 13 - 15 | Dec 6 - 8 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | Distributor |
| 1 | Jumanji: The Next Level | $ 59,251,543 | 4,227 | 1 | $ 14,017 | $ 59,251,543 | Sony | ||
| 2 | Frozen II | 19,072,948 | 35,165,614 | -45.8 | 4,078 | 4 | 4,677 | 366,433,020 | Disney |
| 3 | Knives Out | 9,138,699 | 14,216,723 | -35.7 | 3,413 | 3 | 2,678 | 78,815,947 | Lionsgate |
| 4 | Richard Jewell | 4,680,124 | 2,502 | 1 | 1,871 | 4,680,124 | Warner Bros. | ||
| 5 | Black Christmas | 4,240,245 | 2,625 | 1 | 1,615 | 4,240,245 | Universal | ||
| 6 | Ford v Ferrari | 4,080,749 | 6,655,136 | -38.7 | 2,895 | 5 | 1,410 | 98,185,543 | Fox |
| 7 | Queen & Slim | 3,583,680 | 6,642,685 | -46.1 | 1,560 | 3 | 2,297 | 33,158,550 | Universal |
| 8 | A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood | 3,276,920 | 5,200,508 | -37.0 | 2,855 | 4 | 1,148 | 49,254,811 | Sony |
| 9 | Dark Waters | 1,897,650 | 3,996,275 | -52.5 | 2,112 | 4 | 899 | 8,786,824 | Focus |
| 10 | 21 Bridges | 1,183,802 | 2,865,050 | -58.7 | 1,533 | 4 | 772 | 26,355,168 | STX |
| 11 | Midway | 871,787 | 1,933,137 | -54.9 | 1,419 | 6 | 614 | 55,211,634 | Lionsgate |
| 12 | Playing With Fire | 665,013 | 2,033,369 | -67.3 | 1,381 | 6 | 482 | 43,259,831 | Paramount |
| 13 | Parasite | 632,485 | 701,954 | -9.9 | 306 | 10 | 2,067 | 20,357,206 | Neon |
| 14 | Uncut Gems | 537,242 | 5 | 1 | 107,448 | 537,242 | A24 | ||
| 15 | Joker | 472,341 | 1,011,191 | -53.3 | 553 | 11 | 854 | 333,042,715 | Warner Bros. |
| 16 | Last Christmas | 458,310 | 1,016,760 | -54.9 | 616 | 6 | 744 | 34,399,150 | Universal |
| 17 | Harriet | 424,685 | 837,970 | -49.3 | 648 | 7 | 655 | 41,747,850 | Focus |
| 18 | Jojo Rabbit | 372,306 | 563,553 | -33.9 | 400 | 9 | 931 | 19,979,070 | Fox Searchlight |
| 19 | Bombshell | 317,014 | 4 | 1 | 79,254 | 317,014 | Lionsgate | ||
| 20 | Venky Mama | 306,000 | 127 | 1 | 2,409 | 435,000 | Redheart | ||
| Top 5 | $ 96,383,559 | $ 67,880,666 | 42.0 | ||||||
| Top 10 | 110,406,360 | 79,725,257 | 38.5 | ||||||
| Top 20 | 115,463,543 | 85,975,854 | 34.3 | ||||||
| Top 20 vs. 2018 | 115,463,543 | 113,248,326 | 2.0 |
Last Updated: December 15, 2019 at 4:50PM ET
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