'Jumanji' claws its way back to top of North American box office

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Sony's "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" managed the rare feat this weekend of regaining the No. 1 spot in North American box offices in its seventh week out, according to industry estimates.

Taking in 11 million US dollars for the three-day weekend – as competition with football's Super Bowl depressed ticket sales – "Jumanji" became the first film since "Titanic," in 1998, to win a February weekend after a nationwide release in December, HollywoodReporter.com reported.

The family flick, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart, follows a group of teens who find themselves transported inside the video game world of Jumanji. Its domestic cumulative take of just over 350 million US dollars makes it only the third Sony film to reach that mark.

Last weekend's top-grossing movie, Fox's "Maze Runner: The Death Cure," slipped to second place with a take of 10.2 million US dollars, according to the Exhibitor Relations website. The dystopian sci-fi film follows the harrowing adventures of three teens who have survived a destructive virus infecting the world.

Dwayne Johnson (center), Kevin Hart (right) and Nick Jonas (left) pose during the German premiere of "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" at the Sony Center in Berlin, December 6, 2017. /VCG Photo

In third spot was a new release, "Winchester" from Lionsgate, with takings of 9.3 million US dollars despite abysmal reviews.

The movie, a gothic thriller, was inspired by the real-life story of Sarah Winchester, the 19th-century heiress to the Winchester gun-making fortune, who built an enormous, spookily elaborate mansion in California to appease the spirits of people killed by her family's firearms.

Despite the draw of Helen Mirren in the title role, the film scored a paltry nine percent on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Even she could not "class up... this super-silly feature," The New York Times said.

Fox's "The Greatest Showman," with Hugh Jackman as larger-than-life circus impresario P.T. Barnum, clung to the fourth spot, taking in 7.8 million US dollars.

And in fifth place was Entertainment Studios' "Hostiles," starring Christian Bale in a gritty Western about a US cavalry officer who escorts a Cheyenne chief and his family to Montana in 1892. It took in an estimated 5.5 million US dollars.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

"The Post" (5.2 million US dollars)

"12 Strong" (4.7 million US dollars)

"Den of Thieves" (4.7 million US dollars)

"The Shape of Water" (4.3 million US dollars)

"Paddington 2" (3.1 million US dollars)

Source(s): AFP