The major studios are holding on to their final 2017 releases until later this month, partly to get out of the way of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” but also to get a bigger opening weekend closer to Christmas, when more people will be on holiday and more likely to take their loved ones out for a night at the movies. That means that for a third straight weekend, Pixar’s “Coco” is still the No. 1 movie with $19 million in its third weekend, giving it a running domestic total of $136 million.
The one new addition to the top five this weekend is A24’s “The Disaster Artist,” which expanded to 840 screens after making $1.6 million in limited release. It is ranked fourth on the charts this weekend, making $6.4 million to push its domestic total to $8 million. Projections before the weekend had the film making $4-6 million.
In the rest of the top five, milestones abound for the films that have dominated the box office since the start of November. “Justice League” has crossed $600 million worldwide in its fourth weekend in theaters, making $9.6 million domestically to bring its stateside total to $212 million. This also pushes Warner Bros.’ total domestic revenue for 2017 past the $2 billion mark. It’s only the second time in studio history that WB has reached that mark, having reached $2.13 billion in 2009.
In third this weekend is Lionsgate’s “Wonder,” which passed the $100 million mark with $8.45 million in its fourth weekend. “Wonder” has been the little film that could for Lionsgate, becoming the studio’s highest grossing film since “La La Land” ($151 million) and doing it against a budget of $20 million. It’s also expected that Paramount’s “Daddy’s Home 2” and Fox’s “Murder on the Orient Express” will also hit the $100 million mark by year’s end.
Finally, there’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe and “Thor: Ragnarok,” which slides just under “The Disaster Artist” this weekend to take fifth with $6.3 million. That pushes its domestic total past the $300 million mark, meaning that all three 2017 MCU titles have crossed that milestone. Combined, the domestic grosses for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” ($389 million), “Spider-Man: Homecoming” ($334 million) and “Thor: Ragnarok” sits at $1.02 billion. They all also posted opening weekends of over $100 million, making Marvel Studios the first production studio to release three titles that achieved that mark.
Finally, there’s “Just Getting Started,” the final release from Broad Green Pictures which shut down its production division back in August. The film was panned by critics and audiences, with a 9 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a C on CinemaScore, and it has flopped at the box office with only $3.2 million from 2,161 theaters to finish tenth on the charts.