Missouri

While most of America was glued to its TV sets watching the Eagles’ thrilling last minute victory over the New England Patriots to deny them a sixth Super Bowl trophy, another titan in their field made a comeback in this weekend’s box office showdown. Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which has grossed a remarkable $855 million worldwide, came back from a second-place slump last week to pick up its fifth top domestic finish, albeit at only $11 million in an all-around slow theatergoing weekend.

In this week’s roundup, several 75th Golden Globe winners and prominent nominees saw an immediate boost from their well-deserved prizes, while the last blockbusters of 2017 had a surprising reversal of fortune with their second forays into the new year over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend.

This uncluttered post-Thanksgiving frame left the US box office without a single major wide release, but several returning titles and expanding specialty films made milestones of their own. First place went to Disney/Pixar’s Coco, which once again sapped some super powers away from Justice League and finished its second weekend with $26.

Intense, funny, tragic and cathartic are the words that may best describe Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a story of desperation, revenge, and determination featuring a fierce Frances McDormand as a divorced Missouri mother who pursues justice for her murdered daughter with the steely resolve of Rosie the Riveter (if, that is, she was also Clint Eastwood’s daughter). A case of augmented dramatic reality, which skirts the edges of flat-out comedy, social critique, the film certainly minces no words in putting forth its rollicking narrative which somehow perfectly fits the times.