LOS ANGELES - In their Super Bowl tradition, the major Hollywood studios sat on the sidelines over the weekend. Only one new low-cost movie, the horror-themed Winchester, arrived in wide release, an effort by a small film company to counter-programme the big game by going after female ticket buyers.
That left two holdovers to lead the box office.
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle reclaimed the No. 1 spot, selling about US$11 million (S$14.5 million) in tickets at North American theatres, for a seven-week domestic total of US$352.6 million, according to comScore.
It is almost unheard-of for a movie to continue to perform so strongly so late in its run.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure was second, collecting an estimated US$10.2 million, for a two-week total of US$39.8 million.
Third was Winchester, inspired by the true story of Sarah Winchester, a firearm heiress who, in the early 1900s, came to believe that people killed by the Winchester rifle were haunting her labyrinthine house.
The film took in roughly US$9.3 million, a bit more than analysts were expecting before release. Critics eviscerated the movie, which stars Helen Mirren, but ticket buyers gave it a B-minus grade in exit polls, a relatively good result for the horror genre.
Winchester did not perform like a typical horror movie. Ticket sales increased from Friday to Saturday; horror movies often drop after opening day.
Horror also tends to appeal primarily to teenage girls. But women over the age of 25 - the line that marks "older" ticket buyers in Hollywood's view - made up 64 per cent of the opening-weekend audience for Winchester.
Casting veteran actresses in horror movies has become a trend. The Oscar-winning Mirren is 72. Lin Shaye, 74, anchored the recent Insidious: The Last Key.
Another Oscar winner, Octavia Spencer, 45, was just cast as the lead in Ma, a coming film from the Blumhouse horror factory.
