Moana still on top at US box office; La La Land sings

Disney’s latest animation smash Moana continued its run on top of the US box office this weekend, its third week at the summit but it was La La Land that made headlines with a stunning opening. (via Box Office Mojo)

Starring Dwayne Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho, Moana earned around $18.8million to bring its domestic total to $145million. Across the globe, the film continues to impress and its global taking now exceeds $238.8million.

The highest new release on the chart was comedy Office Christmas Party, which opened at No.2. The ensemble comedy, led by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston, took an estimated $17.5million over the weekend and its opening is on a par with other R-rated comedies this year including How To Be Single and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them was third with $10.78million to bring its worldwide total to $680million; Arrival continues its impressive run with another $5.6million grossed this weekend bringing its worldwide total to just under $130million. And Doctor Strange is now the seventh largest Marvel release in the MCU after its worldwide total exceeded $645million, putting it about Thor: The Dark World ($644.6million).

Further down the list, Manchester by the Sea had another strong weekend in its limited release, grossing $3.15million from 366 theatres to bring its total to $8.3million so far – next weekend it expands further to around 1,200 theatres as it continues its Oscar push.

Jackie, starring Natalie Portman, added 26 theatres to its total and grossed a solid $495,000. Not such good news for another expanded release: Jessica Chastain’s Miss Sloane added 1,644 theatres this weekend but only managed to bring in around $1.9million for a $2million total.

The big winner of the weekend was La La Land, the new film from Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, which debuted in just five theatres this weekend and grossed an estimated $855,000 for a theatre average of $171,000, making it both the biggest average opening of 2016 and the 10th biggest opening-per-theatre-average of all time. The film expands to further 200 cinemas next week and again on Christmas Day.