“The Rise of Skywalker” Tops Start of 2020

By: Keaton Marcus

Diving into the weekend, The Rise of Skywalker once again managed to be the focus of the charts as it three-peats over the first weekend of 2020 with a rock-solid performance. However, Jumanji: The Next Level is gaining close to the ninth Star Wars installment in runner-up. This is while Little Women managed to edge out horror reboot The Grudge, which had an average showing. Rounding out the top five was Frozen II, which hit a major milestone globally.

Topping the charts for a third time straight was Disney’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker which earned an additional 33.7M in ticket sales. This indicates a reasonable, if unspectacular drop of 53% from its sophomore session, which contributes to a domestic total that now stands at 450.7M after 17 days in release. The North American performance is still pacing around 57 million behind The Last Jedi, which finished with just over 620M. Considering this, we have come to expect a finish of around 530M, with room for more or less.

Overseas, The Rise of Skywalker pulled in another 50.5M internationally from many material markets for a foreign gross capping 468M and a global total of 918.7M. Currently, this is still far behind the success of its two predecessors, but the conclusion will more than likely be the seventh Disney flick to top one billion during 2019. Otherwise, it’s still a bit of a disappointment considering that this may be the final installment to the franchise, however, nobody can argue that surpassing one billion isn’t good.

In runner-up, Sony’s Jumanji: The Next Level continued its extremely impressive performance with an estimated 26.5M this weekend, dipping just 25% and reaching a massive 236.2M domestically after 24 days. With another small drop, the sequel is showing similar, if weaker signs of a very long run, and perhaps a possibility to top 300M? Internationally, the film added another excellent 42.4M overseas for a foreign gross of 374M and a large worldwide cume of 610.2M.

In third, Sony also dominated with Little Women which sold a notably strong 13.6M on its sophomore session, sliding only 19% and topping 60M domestically after 10 days. Overseas, the well-reviewed reboot added another 9.5M into the mix from just six markets, contributing to a foreign total of 20.4M and a worldwide bout of 80.4M. We saw an opening in Australia (3.4M), followed by France (1.5M) while its biggest market remains the UK (12M).

Fourthly, Sony once again took the spot with another reboot, this time the R-rated horror flick The Grudge which made 11.3M in its opening weekend. Despite topping its conservative 8-10M pre-weekend expectations, its largely negative reviews and “F” CinemaScore beg to differ, dampening any chances for a long run. The hardcore gore-fest also started its international run with an estimated 5.8M from 29 markets for a global launch of 17.1M. Leading the way was an opening in Indonesia (1M), with upcoming releases such as Germany (Jan 9), France (Jan 15), Russia (Jan 16), the UK (Jan 24), Australia (Jan 30), Brazil (Feb 13) and Italy (Feb 27).

Rounding out the top five was Disney’s Frozen II which earned another 11.2M during its seventh weekend of release, resulting in a wonderful 449.8M in North America so far. Things are more active overseas as it brought in an estimated 42.4M, for foreign earnings of 875.3M and a gargantuan worldwide total of 1.325B, topping the original (1.274B), and making it the biggest animated movie of all-time.

Next weekend, we see another two new wide releases, and another two expansions come into play. Firstly, Fox’s release of Underwater and Paramount’s Like a Boss are going wide. Otherwise, Universal will expand WW1 flick 1917 into 3,200 theaters while WB will go wide with Just Mercy in 2,200 locations.

TOP FIVE:

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Jumanji: The Next Level
Little Women (2019)
The Grudge (2020)
Frozen II