'Jumanji' leads box office pack over US holiday weekend

“Jumanji,” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, funnymen Jack Black and Kevin Hart, netted $35.2 million over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, bringing its domestic total to $291.3 million in its fourth week out, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations reported.

The film follows four teens who find themselves inside the video game world of Jumanji.

In second place was Fox’s “The Post,” which pulled in $23 million over the Friday-Monday MLK weekend after heading into wide release.

A critically-acclaimed film starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, the political thriller recounts the nail-biting behind-the-scenes story of the 1971 publication by The Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Fox’s “The Greatest Showman” which tells the story of larger-than-life circus impresario P.T. Barnum, netted $16.2 million for third place.

“The Commuter,” a new action thriller from Lionsgate, took $15.8 million in its first week, putting it in fourth place.

In the film, a man played by Liam Neeson takes his regular train ride home and is unwittingly enticed into a murder conspiracy by a mysterious woman, played by Vera Farmiga.

“Paddington 2” netted $15 million to take the fifth spot.

And  “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” brought in $14.6 million in North America for sixth place. The space saga stars Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver and two members of the series’ original cast, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and the late Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Insidious: the Last Key” ($14.3 million)

“Proud Mary” ($11.7 million)

“Pitch Perfect 3” ($7.3 million)

“Darkest Hour” ($5.4 million)

Source: AFP