'Aquaman' stays strong with $51.5 mln in second weekend

World
Europe

"Aquaman" easily retained its reign in North America for the second weekend in a row, dominating box office charts with 51.5 million U.S. dollars from 4,125 locations.

That marks a decline of just 24 percent from its opening weekend of 72 million U.S. dollars and brings the DC superhero tentpole past 188 million U.S. dollars in the states. Overseas, the movie, directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa, has surpassed 560 million U.S. dollars.

Disney's "Mary Poppins Returns" held the No. 2 spot with 28 million U.S. dollars, a solid uptick of 28 percent to take ticket sales just shy of 100 million U.S. dollars. Globally, the musical has amassed 173 million U.S. dollars.

(L-R) Emily Mortimer, Emily Blunt, and Meryl Streep attend the European Premiere of "Mary Poppins Returns" at Royal Albert Hall in London, December 12, 2018. /VCG Photo

Paramount's "Bumblebee" landed in third place again, picking up 21 million U.S. dollars from 3,550 venues, a small three percent drop. The "Transformers" origin story with Hailee Steinfeld has made 67 million U.S. dollars through Sunday.

A number of holdovers rounded out the top five. Sony's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" nabbed fourth place, amassing 18 million U.S. dollars in its third week of release. The latest big-screen adaptation of Marvel's web-slinging hero, which has received high praise from critics and fans alike, just crossed the 100 million U.S. dollars mark in North America.

Revenues in North America dropped 5.2 percent compared to the same weekend in 2017, according to Comscore.

(Top Photo: Jason Momoa (2nd R) attends the Aquaman Sydney Fan Event at Event Cinemas George Street in Sydney, Australia, December 19, 2018.)

Source(s): Reuters