Latest 'Star Wars' tops $1 billion in third week

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The latest Disney and LucasFilm blockbuster "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" has earned one billion US dollars at the global box office in less than three weeks.

"The Last Jedi" pulled in 120.4 million US dollars globally on the New Year’s Eve weekend with 52.4 million US dollars at 4,232 domestic venues and 68 million US dollars internationally during the Friday-Sunday period.

The tentpole movie, currently at 533.1 million US dollars, will see a significant jolt when it opens in its final market, China, on January 5.

The sci-fi hit has also surpassed Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” which grossed 504 million US dollars in North America, as the highest-grossing film in North America on the final day of 2017.

"Jedi" is also the seventh highest-grossing domestic movie of all time.

Producer Ram Bergman, director Rian Johnson and actors Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill pose for pictures as they arrive for the China premiere of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' at the Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai, China, December 20, 2017. /Reuters Photo

In a battle of box office heavyweights in the four-day New Year’s holiday weekend, Sony’s "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" is trying to keep pace with “Star Wars”, as the fantasy reboot, which finds Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart transported into a video game world, has outperformed expectations, picking up a lordly 66.5 million US dollars over the holiday weekend.

It now has a hefty 185.7 million US dollars domestic gross and should continue to draw crowds in 2018. The “Jumanji” sequel has also done well internationally, racking up 350 million US dollars worldwide.

Director Jake Kasdan and cast members Nick Jonas, Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black and Kevin Hart pose for photographers as they arrive for the UK premiere of 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle', at the Vue West End, Leicester Square, central London, Britain December 7, 2017. /Reuters Photo

However, the North American box office has had its fair share of struggles this year, which ends 2017 with 11.12 billion US dollars in sales, down 2.3 percent on last year’s 11.38 billion dollars and off slightly from 2015’s 11.14 billion dollars, according to comScore.

With more people curling up to watch movies at home, theater attendance is expected to hit a 22-year low.

Foreign audiences picked up the slack as domestic attendance sputtered in 2017. The global box office is projected to hit 40 billion US dollars for the first time in history, propelled by the return of China.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters