It was a tight showdown at the box office this week, but the galaxy far, far away emerged victorious again.
In first for the fourth consecutive week is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with $21.9 million. Over the weekend, the spinoff became the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, passing the $431 million of The Phantom Menace. Rogue One now stands at $477.2 million domestically and is only $9 million behind fellow Disney release Finding Dory for the top spot on the 2016 charts. It's only a matter of time before Rogue One passes Pixar's latest. The Star Wars anthology has also made $914.3 million worldwide and still has a realistic shot at hitting the $1 billion club by the time it ends its run.
Expanding nationwide to 2,471 theaters, the Golden Globe nominated drama Hidden Figures (read our review) came in second with $21.8 million. The film was able to capitalize on its positive reception and strong word-of-mouth, as many praised it as a feel-good, inspirational movie that told an interesting story. That reaction and the awards buzz was more than enough to help Hidden Figures surge to the top of the charts, and it even managed to beat Rogue One on Friday. So far, the movie has made $24.7 million Stateside.
In third is Sing. Illumination Entertainment's animation hit added $19.5 million to its domestic total, which now stands at $213.3 million. While its chances of passing Illumination's other 2016 release - The Secret Life of Pets - are slim, Sing has still worked its way up to the top 15 on the 2016 charts, currently ranking 13th.
Coming in fourth is Underworld: Blood Wars (read our review), the fifth installment in the long-running Underworld franchise. The film grossed a measly $13.1 million in its first three days, which by far is the series' lowest opening weekend. That figure is more than $7 million behind the next worst - 2009's Underworld: Rise of the Lycans ($20.8 million). Blood Wars was widely panned by critics, which certainly hurt its commercial appeal. With interest this low, it will likely begin to slide down the charts in the coming weeks. If there is a silver lining for distributor Screen Gems, it's that Blood Wars has made back its budget thanks to the foreign markets. The film's worldwide total is $55.6 million.
Rounding out the top five is awards season heavyweight La La Land. Adding more locations to its theater count, the musical grossed $10 million over the weekend to raise its domestic haul to an impressive $51.6 million. With the Golden Globes taking place January 8 and Oscar nominations right around the corner, the demand will remain high for this film in the coming weeks.
Passengers is the #6 film with $8.8 million. The sci-fi drama/romance is now up to $80.8 million Stateside. Passengers has received a bit of a boost internationally, as the global total is $137.6 million. That's enough to account for the $110 million production budget, but it's still far from the numbers Sony envisioned when they first gave the project a green light.
Comedy Why Him? comes in seventh with $6.5 million. The raunchy, R-rated affair now stands at $48.5 million domestically.
In eighth is Moana. Disney Animation's latest grossed $6.4 million in its seventh weekend to raise its domestic total to $225.3 million.
Denzel Washington's Fences is the #9 film with $4.7 million. The awards contender is now up to $40.6 million in the U.S.
Capping off the top ten is Assassin's Creed. The video game adaptation brought in $3.8 million over the weekend and has now grossed $49.5 million domestically. Worldwide, it's only at $99.8 million, a far cry from its $125 million budget.
[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates -- based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, January 9 -- at which time we'll update this post with any changes.]
Source: Box Office Mojo