- Box Office
World Box Office Dec 18 – Dec 24, 2017
Star Wars: The Last Jedi won again over Christmas weekend. It had a huge showing around the world, making enormous profits in every one of its 55 global territories. Global sales for the film’s second week in theaters were worth a gigantic $145 million and took the film to $750 million. Adding Christmas Day earnings, TLJ has almost reached $800 million, ending the five-day period on $791.6 million. Some are saying that Star Wars is immune to sequel fatigue, and it shows no signs of slowing down yet. Audience opinions remained relatively evenly split, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Many found the film somehow formulaic, while some appreciated its departure from the subtle character development, creeping suspense, and rigid moral spine that defined the original trilogy.
People in other countries love to go see Star Wars in movie theaters too. In the UK, it’s made $67.9 million. In Germany, TlJ has so far earned $42.6 million. France is showing massive sales as well at $31.1 million and Japan at $29.6 million is having a huge showing too. So far, its total sales outside of the United States is around a third less than The Force Awakens, but 40% more than Rogue One. If things keep going like this, it will earn somewhere near $1.3 billion and close to as much from stuffed space chickens and Luke Skywalker emojis. Star Wars: The Last Jedi will open in China on January 6 and will hope to see the benefit of a huge Middle Kingdom marketing campaign.
Another movie made a big splash in the US and surprised some with the scale of its success. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle made a bold move opening against Star Wars over the Christmas weekend. That paid off handsomely and Sony made $70.4 million. In this movie, a group of kids get transported into the board game that ate Robin Williams twelve years ago but this time they all get new adult bodies. The Rock was one of them; another was Kevin Hart, while a third was Jack Black. Scottish actress Karen Gillan is also one of the children’s avatars. Bobby Carnavale, who plays an explorer bent on using the game’s magic powers for evil, torments them all for two hours. Sony was pretty frugal, getting this big VFX heavy film full of expensive well-known stars made for what they claim is just $90 million after tax credits. International sales were worth $49.5 million through Sunday. France opened at $3.4 million. Germany did $2.5 million and Mexico did $2.9 million. The real surprise was how well it did in Southeast Asia. Malaysia, which usually isn’t that big of a market, made $7.1 million for the film. Indonesia came in with $3.4 million, while Singapore earned it $1.8 million. It opens in Italy, Korea, and Brazil after New Year’s and China on January 12.
Next week, which will bring us into 2018, several new titles will open for the New Year. Insidious: The Last Key, a sequel to Blumhouse’s horror moneymaker, is one of them. Palestinian film In Between, about three girls trapped between tradition and modernity in Tel Aviv, gets a limited release.