Aquaman threepeats at the box office with $30.7 million
New year, same box office champ.
Warner Bros’. superhero flick Aquaman is kicking off 2019 by topping the box office for a third consecutive weekend, earning an estimated $30.7 million at 4,184 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday. The weekend’s only new major release, Sony’s horror thriller Escape Room, is on pace for second place, taking in an estimated $18 million at 2,717 theaters and coming in ahead of expectations.
Through Sunday, Aquaman has grossed about $259.7 at the domestic box office and $681 million overseas ($56.2 of that coming this weekend), for a worldwide total of $940.7 million. This week, it became the highest-grossing entry in Warner Bros. and DC’s interconnected cinematic universe, surpassing Wonder Woman ($821.8 million) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($873.6 million) in worldwide ticket sales.
Directed by James Wan (Furious 7, the Conjuring movies), Aquaman stars Jason Momoa as the eponymous undersea hero, who battles his power-hungry half-brother and tries to protect both Atlantis and the surface world. The cast also includes Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
Meanwhile, Escape Room is off to a strong start, as it had been expected to debut in the $10 million range and only cost about $9 million to make. Directed by Adam Robitel and starring Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell, and Logan Miller, the film follows a group of strangers who get caught in a deadly escape room. Critics’ reviews were unenthusiastic, and audiences gave it a B CinemaScore.
Rounding out the top five this weekend are Disney’s musical sequel Mary Poppins Returns, with an estimated $15.8 million; Sony’s animated adventure Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with an estimated $13 million; and Paramount’s Transformers spin-off Bumblebee, with an estimated $12.8 million.
Overall box office is down 5.1 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. Check out the Jan. 4-6 numbers below.
1. Aquaman — $30.7 million
2. Escape Room — $18 million
3. Mary Poppins Returns — $15.8 million
4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — $13 million
5. Bumblebee — $12.8 million
6. The Mule — $9 million
7. Vice — $5.8 million
8. Second Act — $4.9 million
9. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $4.7 million
10. Holmes and Watson — $3.4 million