There was a point in time when the first weekend of the year was a dead zone for any wide releases. But then 12 years ago, Lionsgate’s Hostel broke through with a $19.6M start, opening the doors to a solid, devoted young audience following the holiday movie onslaught. Such is the case again this weekend as Universal/Blumhouse’s fourth-quel Insidious: The Last Key looks to take in $20M-$22M at 3,000-plus theaters. The Leigh Whannell-scripted and produced PG-13 feature isn’t expected to notch No. 1, but it’s going to put up a solid result. Jason Blum, Oren Peli and co-creator James Wan return as producers with the movie directed by series newcomer Adam Robitel. Through three movies, the Insidious brand has grossed closed to $372M at the global B.O. Previews start tomorrow night at 7PM.
No. 1 will either go to Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi or Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle which will make between $25M-$26M. For the second day in a row, Jumanji beat Last Jedi on Tuesday, $10.1M to $8M. Last Jedi held No. 1 for the last three weekends, which was the same hold for 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Force Awakens held the top spot at the box office for four weekends in a row through the 2015-2016 holiday stretch.
STX Entertainment’s Molly’s Game from Aaron Sorkin is expanding from 271 sites to 1,500 locations with industry estimates pegging its second weekend between $6M-$7M. Pic’s cume through Tuesday stands at $6.55M. Pic’s production cost is $30M.
20th Century Fox/Chernin’s The Greatest Showman is looking at a 30% ease for $10M-$11M in weekend 3. Through yesterday, the Hugh Jackman-Zac Efron-Michelle Williams period musical counts $58M.
Universal/Gold Circle’s Pitch Perfect 3, also in weekend 3, is projected to decline 50% for $7M-8M. Through yesterday the threequel has accrued $71.6M stateside, $100M global off a reported estimated production cost of $49M. All in, the franchise counts over half billion at the global box office.
Next weekend is the four-day MLK period which is the unofficial end to the holiday season as kids officially go back to school after that time. There are four wide entries then: Screen Gems’ Proud Mary, Warner Bros./StudioCanal’s Paddington 2, Lionsgate’s Liam Neeson shoot ’em up The Commuter and the distributor’s Hispanic movie Condorito: La Pelicula.
