‘Maze Runner’ dethrones ‘Jumanji’ at the weekend box office

Jumanji’s reign at the top of the box office has finally come to an end.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure won the weekend box office with an opening of $23.5 million. This is the smallest opening of The Maze Runner franchise and even though this opening was expected it seems that the franchise hasn’t really gained a larger audience since the first film back in 2014.

It will be tough for The Death Cure to gross more than its predecessors, but it appears that some good reviews and a steady international box office performance could help the film and franchise in the long run.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle fell to second place with $16.4 million. The film is approaching $340 million domestically. It also just passed Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man 3 and is now currently Sony’s third largest domestic release of all-time.

Hostiles expanded into wide release this past weekend and jumped up 21 spots and finished in third place. The Christian Bale western brought in $10.2 million and I’m curious to see if the film finds an audience in the coming weeks.

The Greatest Showman moved up one spot to fourth place with $9.5 million and is approaching $130 million domestically. The film expanded into wide release back on December 20 and has remained in the top five since then. Impressive.

The Post rounds out the top five with $8.9 million and is approaching $60 million domestically. I still expect this film to have continued success and also think it will do some work at the Academy Awards in March.

12 Strong and Den of Thieves both dropped during their second weekends. They both dropped 45% with 12 Strong finishing in sixth place with $8.6 million and Den of Thieves finished in seventh place with $8.4 million.

The Shape of Water jumped up eight spots to finish in eighth place with $5.7 million. The Best Picture nominee is approaching $40 million domestically.

The Death Cure has a decent chance of remaining box office champion next weekend as we only have on film opening on Super Bowl weekend. It is the horror film Winchester starring Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke.

Weekend Gross by Distributor:

20th Century Fox: $42.8 million (+18%)

Sony Pictures: $16.4 million (-7.3%)

Warner Bros.: $14.2 million (-10.5%)

Entertainment Studios: $10.2 million (n/a)

STX Entertainment: $9.3 million (-7.7%)

Fox Searchlight: $9.3 million (+5.1%)

Disney: $5.9 million (-2.8%)

Focus Features: $5.8 million (-0.6%)

Universal: $4.5 million (-4.6%)

Paramount Pictures: $4.3 million (n/a)

Lionsgate: $3.5 million (-3.2%)

Neon: $3 million (0%)

A24: $1.9 million (n/a)

Next week’s openings: Winchester