Home Entertainment Weekend box office – Star Wars nears $1 billion, Frozen 2 becomes biggest animated film ever

Weekend box office – Star Wars nears $1 billion, Frozen 2 becomes biggest animated film ever

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We’re back with the box office report and here’s what you missed over the holidays: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opened and won big… -ish. While trailing behind The Force Awakens ($2.086 billion) and The Last Jedi ($1.333 billion), the final instalment in the Skywalker saga still boasted impressive returns as it held the top spot in most of the world (China is not playing ball) for the last three weekends, with its global tally topping out at $918.8 million by yesterday.

Breaking down that number, on the domestic front, The Rise of Skywalker opened to $177.4 million which is the third biggest weekend in December ever and kept up that momentum in the following week. Continuing from there it earned another $33.7 million this weekend past to push its total in the US to $450 million in 17 days. Internationally, it currently sits at $468 million and would probably have been higher if it didn’t outright bomb in China, being beaten soundly on its opening by Donnie Yen’s Ip Man 4 and now sitting on just $17 million in total. To be fair though, the key Asian market has never been much of a success story for Star Wars as before 2015’s The Force Awakens, the franchise had never been officially released in China. While that film hit it big, probably due to curious filmgoers, every subsequent release has seen diminishing returns. Either way, even without China’s help, The Rise of Skywalker will cross the $1 billion mark in the coming few days, becoming Disney’s seventh 2019 release to achieve this milestone.

And speaking of Disney films achieving milestones, Frozen II may have finished in fifth on the US charts, but the $11.3 million it earned – combined with $42.4 million from international markets – was enough to push it to a global total of $1.325 billion. That officially makes Frozen II the biggest animated film in history as it surpassed the $1.281 billion record previously set by its predecessor in 2013.

As for the rest of the chart, Jumanji: The Next Level held onto second place in its fourth week with $26.5 million. The Dwayne Johnson-led sequel may be off the pace of its 2018 breakout predecessor, but it’s already earned a healthy $610 million worldwide. In third place, Greta Gerwig’s critical darling remake of Little Women held very strong in its second weekend, dipping just 19% as it earned $13.5 million to bring the film’s domestic total to $60 million. It’s only in limited release internationally thus far (with just another $20 million to add), but has already doubled its $40 million budget.

In fourth place, we find our only newcomer of the weekend in Sony’s reboot of The Grudge. The film has been lambasted by critics and even audiences were not impressed at all as it earned a rare and dreaded “F” Cinemascore. Despite this though, the horror exceeded its low expectations as it opened with $11.3 million. With another $5.8 million coming from international markets, it’s already topped its $10 million price tag so the studio won’t be too worried about its terrible reviews.

Let’s see what the rest of the US box office chart looks like:

No.Movie Name Weekend gross Percentage change US Domestic gross Worldwide gross Last Week's Position
1Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker $33.7 million -53% $450.7 million $918.7 million 1st
2Jumanji: The Next Level $26.5 million -24% $236.2 million $610.2 million 2nd
3Little Women $13.5 million -19% $60 million $80.4 million 4th
4The Grudge $11.3 million NE $11.3 million $17.1 million NE
5Frozen II $11.3 million -33% $449.8 million $1.325 billion 3rd
6Spies in Disguise $10 million -24% $46.7 million $88.8 million 5th
7Knives Out $9 million -9% $130.2 million $247.4 million 6th
8Uncut Gems $7.8 million -18% $36.8 million $36.8 million 7th
9Bombshell $4 million -15% $24.5 million $25 million 9th
10Cats $2.6 million -46% $24.6 million $57 million 8th

Last Updated: January 6, 2020

6 Comments

    • Admiral Chief

      January 6, 2020 at 12:38

      Que?

      Reply

  1. For the Emperor!

    January 6, 2020 at 14:33

    Never doubted SW would breach $1 billion, but did not expect it to reach it so fast. The worst in the ‘final’ trillogy by far in my opinion. The Last Jedi made decisions I really disliked, but was a superior movie overall…

    Reply

  2. Admiral Chief

    January 6, 2020 at 12:38

    RoS was one of the best movies I’ve watched, ever. It is my favourite SW movie as well

    This is on the back of watching 4,5,6,1,2,3,7,8

    Masterpiece!

    Reply

  3. Original Heretic

    January 6, 2020 at 12:52

    Watched Frozen 2 with my boy over the weekend. Think I enjoyed it more than he did.

    Reply

    • For the Emperor!

      January 6, 2020 at 14:33

      I loved it myself. And much better than Star Wars!

      Reply

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