Rogue One Tops Four Christmas Newcomers

Walt Disney Studios and LucasFilms’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story led the box office by a wide margin on its second week, trouncing the four Christmas newcomers with a $96.11 million four-day weekend (Dec. 23-26). It earned $64.03 million over the traditional three-day weekend. If it holds up as well in subsequent weekends as it did on its second, it should look to run about even with Finding Dory to become 2016’s highest grosser domestically.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story beat four holiday newcomers to lead the box office for the second straight weekend.
(Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd.)

Theater closures on Saturday for the Christmas holiday made a bit of a dent in Rogue One’s overseas earnings, but the film was still able to cross the $500 million global mark in its second weekend, capturing the major milestone on a weekend when it dominated theater screens around the world. By the end of the holiday weekend, it had reached the $318.12 million mark in the U.S.

The four new wide releases ranked at positions 2-5 in the box office. Universal Pictures’ animated Sing, which features voicwork from Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Taron Egerton and Scarlett Johansson, led the pack with a $54.93 million four-day weekend ($35.25 million three-day).

Sony Pictures’ sci-fi romance Passengers, which stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, overcame a slow start to end the four-day weekend with $22.68 million ($15.05 million three-day).

Twentieth Century Fox’s R-rated comedy Why Him? starring James Franco and Bryan Cranston took in $15.53 million 4-day ($11.00 million 3-day), beating fellow 20th Century Fox video-game action flick Assassin’s Creed starring Michael Fassbender with $14.80 million 4-day ($10.27 million 3-day).