Culture

'Maze Runner' tops weekend box office, Oscar pics get boost

January 28, 2018 20:57·
The Times-Picayune's Mike Scott

The Times-Picayune's Mike Scott

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is the No. 1 movie at the North American box office this weekend, earning $23.5 million in receipts, BoxOfficeMojo.com announced Sunday. It's the third and final installment in the Maze Runner series based on James Dashner's dystopian young adult novels and the weakest opening of the three (the first opened to $32.5 million and the second to $30.3 million).

"Maze Runner: The Death Cure" may not have started as well as 2014's "The Maze Runner" or 2015's "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials", but it still convincingly ranked as Friday's top film in the US.

The Death Cure was originally set to hit theaters a year ago, but its release was delayed when franchise star Dylan O'Brien was injured while filming.

The Steven Spielberg film, featuring mega-stars Tom Hanks and Merle Streep as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katherine Graham, depicts their tense legal battle to publish the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Down only 16 percent, Jumanji added $16.4 million, bringing its total to a robust $338.1 million. Meanwhile, Entertainment Studios saw Hostiles deliver a solid performance as it expanded nationwide, Sony's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Greatest Showman continue to hold strong, The Shape of Water expands with strong numbers on the heels of its 13 Oscar nominations and Viva's Padmaavat secures a spot in the top ten despite playing in just 324 theaters.

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Disney's/Lucasfilms' Star Wars: The Last Jedi is still clinging on six weeks after release with a weekend total of $4.3 million in North America.

Fox Searchlight's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" finished 11th with $3.6 million at 1,457 sites in the wake of receiving seven Oscar nominations, lifting its three-month total to $37 million.

The action comedy, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, also grossed $17.7 million internationally this weekend for an overseas total of $484 million and a worldwide box office of $821.7 million.

It was also a strong weekend for Fox's Oscar-nominated movies. And Focus Features upped the theater count for Darkest Hour and Phantom Thread, which both took in $2.9 million after getting six nominations each. "These are films that would usually be played out", said Dergarabedian. "If anyone is on the fence, a best picture nomination is a pretty good way to push people in the direction of the movie theater".

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