The Rise of Skywalker Dominates the Weekend Box Office with $175.5M Debut
The Rise of Skywalker easily took the number one spot at the box office this weekend. The highly anticipated sequel was able to pull in $175.5 million, which is the sequel trilogy’s lowest opening. The movie premiered earlier this week and was met with an avalanche of negative reviews. However, Star Wars fans seem to be into the movie and helped get it to the number one spot this weekend. The Rise of Skywalker, which cost Disney and Lucasfilm around $300 million to make, marked the third biggest opening of 2019 to date behind Disney’s Avengers: Endgame ($357.1 million) and The Lion King ($191.7 million). Cats was not able to survive its backlash and barely made the top 5.
Coming in at number two this weekend is Jumanji: The Next Level with $26.1 million. Industry insiders predict that the days following the holidays should be big for the sequel and The Rise of Skywalker, though both movies seem to be doing just fine on their own. Frozen 2 was able to earn $12.3 million, which was enough to take the third position. The animated family movie was able to cross the $1 billion mark last week and is another box office triumph for Disney this year.
Tom Hooper’s Cats was able to take the fourth spot this weekend after bringing in a disappointing $6.5 million. The big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical cost an estimated $100 million to produce, before marketing. Hooper and the studio just cranked out another version of the movie with updated CGI in an attempt to get more viewers in theaters. Rian Johnson’s Knives Out came in at number five with $6.1 million. To date, the mystery movie has brought in over $185.5 million globally.
Bombshell was able to secure the sixth spot at the box office this weekend after bringing in $5 million. The Fox News drama opened slightly below expectations. Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell came in at number seven after bringing in $2.5 million. The biopic has been criticized since its release for distorting some facts, though it has still been able to earn mostly positive reviews since hitting theaters.
Queen Slim took the eighth spot this weekend after earning $1.85 million. The drama has made over $35 million domestically since hitting theaters at the end of November. Blumhouse’s Black Christmas was able to secure the ninth position this weekend after earning $1.8 million and Ford v Ferrari finishes off the top ten, also with $1.8 million. This weekend’s numbers come to us courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
Article source: https://movieweb.com/star-wars-9-box-office-opening-weekend/