On the last weekend of 2017, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was finally dethroned of its title as the highest-grossing domestic release of the year. ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ rang in the New Year in its stead. Owning the domestic top spot for three consecutive years, the ‘Star Wars’ franchise has officially bowled a turkey.

New Year’s weekend was very busy at the box office. ‘The Last Jedi‘ held over well, falling just 26% and retaining first place for the third week in a row. It grossed $52.4 million, bringing its domestic haul up to $517.3 million. The film’s international box office climbed to $523.3 million, pushing ‘The Last Jedi’ $40 million beyond the $1 billion mark, a feat that only three other movies have accomplished this year. It already surpassed ‘Despicable Me 3’ ($1 billion) but needs to make $200 million more to out-drive ‘The Fate of the Furious’ and $220 million more to slay ‘Beauty and Beast’. Does ‘The Last Jedi’ have enough momentum to be the global winner of the year? We’ll find out over the next few weeks.

‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle‘ nearly beat out ‘The Last Jedi’ at the domestic box office. With attendance shooting up more than 38% over last week’s debut, the movie scored $50.3 million, just $2.1 million behind ‘Jedi’. Sony’s $90 million sequel has made $169.6 million over the last two weeks. With the action-comedy also collecting $153 million overseas, its global box office ($338.7 million) is likely to push Sony to fast-track another sequel. Heaven knows that Sony needs a hit. ‘Jumanji’ goes to show, once again, that all The Rock touches turns to gold. [Ed:. I think Luke is forgetting the ‘Baywatch’ fiasco. To be fair, most people already have. –JZ]

‘Pitch Perfect 3‘ had a bad debut last weekend, and although it was one of the few titles to dip in attendance this week, the $16.8 million returns brought its domestic run to a pretty solid point. After ten days, the $45 million threequel has made $67.4 million domestically and $28.6 million overseas. The $96 million worldwide total isn’t as good as where ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ was at this point in its run ($132.6 million), but it’s good enough.

Last week, ‘The Greatest Showman‘ didn’t find a particularly big audience, but word of mouth carried it far this week. Attendance grew more for ‘The Greatest Showman’ this weekend than it did for any other holdover. With a 77% boost in attendance, the Hugh Jackman musical retained its #4 position and earned $15.5 million, bringing its domestic total up to a toe-tapping $54.2 million. Its international box office is at $35.1 million, giving it a worldwide total of $89.4 million. With an $84 million budget, the movie still has a lot of ground to make up.

Three-week-old ‘Ferdinand‘ was up considerably over New Year’s weekend. A 56% boost in attendance allowed the animated picture to retain its #5 spot with $11.4 million. The $111 million animated movie has made $53.5 million domestically and $71.9 million internationally. Unfortunately, without accompanying merchandise, that $128.6 million worldwide gross isn’t enough to put the movie on track for financial success.

Two of the three movies that opened on Christmas Day are not seeing much success. Ridley Scott’s ‘All the Money in the World‘ wasn’t worth all the money Sony spent on reshooting Kevin Spacey’s role. Finishing at #7, the film banked only $5.6 million. Playing on more than 2,000 screens, that averages out to just $2,700 per screen. Over the last seven days, it has pulled $12.7 million domestically and $1.7 million overseas. Even with its international release yet to kick into high gear, the $50 million film is not off to a great start.

The Aaron Sorkin film ‘Molly’s Game‘ is doing even worse. Finishing the weekend outside the Top 10, it pulled just $2.3 million. Playing on 271 screens, the per-screen average is at least better ($8,598), but for a $30 million picture with a $5.2 million seven-day total, the odds are not in its favor.

The only of the Christmas Day movies to play well (so far) is P.T. Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread‘, which grossed $215,000 from four locations, giving it a $53,750 per-screen average. Over the last seven days, it has made $528,345 from those same four locations. Whether it will play well when it expands wide (which I highly doubt), is another thing.

Top 10:

1. ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ (Buena Vista) – $52,446,000

2. ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ (Sony) – $50,355,000

3. ‘Pitch Perfect 3’ (Universal) – $16,845,000

4. ‘The Greatest Showman’ (Fox) – $15,550,000

5. ‘Ferdinand’ (Fox) – $11,400,000

6. ‘Coco’ (Buena Vista) – $6,572,000

7. ‘All the Money in the World’ (Sony) – $5,600,000

8. ‘Darkest Hour’ (Focus) – $5,475,000

9. ‘Downsizing’ (Paramount) – $4,720,000

10. ‘Father Figures’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,815,000