Weekend Box Office

Weekend Box Office (December 1 - 3, 2017)

THIS WEEKEND In yet another mostly uneventful weekend, Disney's Coco became the fourth film to threepeat at the top of the charts this year while some award hopefuls debuted or expanded with big per screen averages. And there was one big flop.

What do Split, The Fate of the Furious, The Hitman's Bodyguard and Coco all have in common? They all led the box office for three straight weekends this year. Coco likely won't be the last film to do it but for now the latest from Disney/Pixar once again topped the charts raking in an additional $18.3M, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $135.5M. Overseas the film added $55.3M bringing its international total to $254M and its worldwide numbers up to $390M.

Leveling off a little from last weekend's 60% decline was Justice League which took in an estimated $9.6M bringing its total up to $212M. With it, Warner Brothers crossed the $2B mark this year led of course by Wonder Woman. Internationally, Justice League added $15.4M bringing its overseas totals to over $400M and its worldwide cume to over $610M. Weird to think that those numbers would be considered disappointing.

Lionsgate remained in third place with its surprise hit of the season, Wonder, which took in an estimated $8.5M this weekend, bringing its total up over the magical $100M mark.

Expanding into 840 theaters from distributor A24 was the James Franco-led The Disaster Artist which made an estimated $6.4M for a per screen average of $7,661, best in the top 10. With exceptional reviews and it being award season and all, the film could do pretty well over the upcoming weeks.

Thor: Ragnarok slipped one spot to fifth with $6.3M, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $301M. Amazingly, that only places it 10th in the MCU out of 17 films, though it is far and away the best of the three Thor solo films. Fellow sequel Daddy's Home 2 took sixth place with an estimated $6M, bringing its total up to $91M after five weeks. Murder on the Orient Express made an estimated $5.1M this weekend, bringing its total up to $92.7M, also after five weeks.

Landing in eighth place was The Star with an estimated $3.6M and a total cume now of $32.2M. The second A24 film on the charts was in ninth place with the acclaimed dramedy Lady Bird which took in an additional $3.5M, according to estimates, bringing its cume up to $22M. Both Lady Bird and The Disaster Artist have a great shot at passing Moonlight to become A24's highest grossing film (currently at $27.8M).

Debuting with disastrous results in 10th place was the action-comedy Just Getting Started starring Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones. The film made an estimated $3.1M from 2,146 theaters for a per screen average of $1,483. With a Rotten Tomatoes grade of 9%(!) and a CinemaScore of only a C, this will be streaming shortly.

A bunch of award hopefuls debuted or expanded this weekend with positive results. Guillermo del Toro's fantasy-romance The Shape of Water expanded to 41 theaters and took in an estimated $1.1M for a per screen average of 26,829. Best Actor frontrunner Gary Oldman's Darkest Hour added 49 screens (bringing the total to 53) and took in $777K for a per screen average of $14,660. Call Me by Your Name continued to sizzle in limited release taking in an estimated $291K from 9 theaters for a per screen average of $32,345. And debuting on four screens with the best average on the charts was I, Tonya which raked in an estimated $245K for a per screen average of $61,401.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $70.6M which was down 1.3% from last year when Moana stayed at number one with $18.8M; and up 6% from 2015 when Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 remained in the top spot with $11.4M.

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Compared to projections, Just Getting Started couldn't even reach Gitesh's optimistic forecast of $4M.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Ferdinand opens. Oh, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Almost forgot.

Watch the NEW trailer for Avengers: Infinity War.

THIS WEEKEND'S TOP 10

This column is updated three times each week: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday (post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of the author.

Last Updated: December 10, 2017 at 3:00PM ET