As 2018 began, Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s hold on the top spot of the domestic box office ended, meaning it was time for Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle to be the number one movie in America. One of the biggest surprise smash hits of 2017, this Jake Kasdan directed motion picture grossed $36 million this weekend, a mere 28% dip from last weekend, for a $244.3 million domestic total so far. It’s within days of beating out the domestic gross of Night At The Museum, the champion of Christmastime family movie box office hits, and will soon surpass the $248.7 million gross of Moana to become the biggest Dwayne Johnson movie of all-time that isn’t Furious 7. This one is also handily gonna cross $300 million domestically (who thought that was ever possible???) and once it surpasses the $304.3 million gross of Skyfall, it will be the biggest movie ever for Sony/Columbia that doesn’t star Spider-Man. Soak that in folks, Jumanji is guaranteed to become the biggest non-Spider-Man movie ever for Sony/Columbia. This is what happens when you concoct strong marketing for a crowdpleaser movie with the perfect release date. Expect the greenlight for a movie about Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart battling robots called Jumanji: Welcome To The Zathura any day now….

In second place was the surprisingly impressive bow of Insidious: The Last Key, the first new horror movie in the marketplace in eons and audiences seemed to be starved for content if that $29.2 million bow is anything to go on. Of course, other horror movies have debuted in this first weekend of January spot and have failed despite being the first horror options in ages, so what made this new Insidious movie open a whopping 30% above the third Insidious movies opening weekend? The positive reception to the last few entries helps plenty while a strong marketing campaign also ensured the film could stand out. This is yet another big hit for Blumhouse Productions and serves as their fourth movie to open to over $25 million in the past year!

And now we come to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which had a fourth-weekend drop akin to its predecessors (in fact, it had the exact same fourth-weekend drop as The Force Awakens) by going down 55% to gross another $23.5 million. The number one movie of 2017 has now grossed $572.5 million and appears on track for a $630 million final domestic total. Meanwhile, in fourth place, was The Greatest Showman, which is turning out to be a box office heavyweight in its longevity as it dipped a meager 11% to gross another $13.8 million this weekend. After a disappointing opening weekend, this one’s turning out to have legs to spare and with $75.9 million amassed domestically right now, it should have no problem becoming only the twelfth musical in history to make over $100 million domestically.

Also holding well in its fourth weekend was Pitch Perfect 3, which grossed $10.2 million, a 39% drop from last weekend, which brings its domestic total up to $85.9 million. Right outside the top five was Ferdinand, which dropped 32% for a $7.7 million fourth weekend and an underwhelming domestic total of only $70.4 million so far. Expanding into wide release this frame was Molly’s Game, which grossed a solid $7 million from 1,608 theaters for a per-theater average of $4,353. Not a bad bow at all there, especially since I always felt like the inherent premise of this project would be a tough sell to general moviegoers. Looks like STX was able to get a decent amount of people to se it though and now this one has grossed $14 million domestically. If it doesn’t collapse in the weekends ahead, it could get to $30 million domestically and it would be only the seventh movie ever from STX to do that.

Next we come to Darkest Hour, which heavily expanded its theater count to 1,733 locations and grossed $6.3 million, a 15% increase from last weekend, as a result. This Gary Oldman led drama has now grossed $28.3 million, quite the notable sum. Coco, meanwhile, grossed $5.5 million this weekend, a 25% drop from last weekend (actually a better first weekend of January drop than the ones seen by fellow Thanksgiving Disney fare Tangled and Moana) and good enough to bring this one to a domestic total of $192 million. Rounding out the top ten was All The Money In The World, which dropped 36% to gross another $3.5 million for a domestic total of only $20.1 million. Experiencing one of the smallest weekend-to-weekend declines this frame was The Shape of Water, which went down only 12% to gross another $3.1 million for a domestic total of $21.6 million.

Showing impressive retention in its theater count expansion this weekend was I, Tonya, which grossed $2.4 million from 242 locations for a per-theater average of $10,026. This one went up roughly 500% in its theater count from last weekend but only decreased 20% in its per-theater average from last weekend, a great hold that bodes very well for this one’s expansion into wide release in two weeks. So far, I, Tonya has grossed $5.2 million domestically. Wonder held well this frame, easing 26% to gross another $2.4 million for a $126.6 million domestic total. Not holding so well was Downsizing, which fell 54% to gross another $2.1 million for a domestic total of only $22.8 million.

Just before it’s expansion into wide release on Friday, The Post did excellent business in 36 locations, grossing $1.7 million for a phenomenal per-theater average of $47,222 and a domestic total so far of $3.8 million. Also expanding its theater count this weekend for the first time since early December was Lady Bird, which went back into 572 locations and grossed a solid $1.5 million (a 6% increase from last weekend) for a per-theater average of $2,774 for a domestic total of $34.1 million. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Father Figures collapsed this weekend by plummetting 66% to gross another $1.2 million for an anemic domestic cume of $16.7 million. The Disaster Artist ensured that it will become the tenth limited release of 2017 to cross $20 million domestically (Molly’s Game will likely be the eleventh limited release film to do just that by next weekend) by dipping only 16% this weekend and grossing another $781,530 for a domestic total of $19.4 million so far. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri went up 4% this frame to gross another $705,000 for a domestic total of $25.3 million so far.

Of all movies, Hostiles showed decent weekend-to-weekend retention this frame as it expanded to 46 locations and grossed $310,000 for a per-theater average of $6,739, an improvement over its per-theater average from last weekend when it was playing in only 5 locations. These still aren’t great figures for a high-profile limited release, but it’s always impressive when a movie improves on its per-theater average when it so heavily expands its theater count. That may actually be enough to ensure that Entertainment Studios gives this one its planned wide release on January 19th after all. Hostiles has now grossed $435,192 domestically. Right behind that Scott Cooper movie was Phantom Thread, which grossed $245,000 from 6 locations for a terrific per-theater average of $40,833.

The top 12 movies this weekend grossed $148.5 million, 19% improvement over this same weekend last year when Hidden Figures expanded into wide release and topped the box office. It’s also the third biggest first weekend of any given year in history, a strong way to kick off the 2018 domestic box office.