‘Maze Runner’ wins the weekend, Oscar nominees see revenue boost

Weekend Box Office Jan. 26–28, 2018

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” was the lone wide release of the weekend and as such its place atop the domestic box office was easy to predict. However, the film’s $23.5 million is dramatically less than the franchise’s first two films that opened above $30 million. The decline may have to do with the fact that the film was originally scheduled for release in February 2017, but an on-set injury to the film’s lead, Dylan O’Brien, shut down production for nearly a year.

“The Death Cure” is the final chapter in the Maze Runner trilogy and is likely to be the last epic-scale teen dystopian adaptation that we’ll see for a few years. It would seem that the love the Hunger Games franchise received was more exclusive than the studios had predicted. Maze Runner has made money -- both of the first films finished with over $300 million -- but the same cannot be said for the 5th Wave and Divergent franchises.

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” continued its impressive run by adding $16.4 million to its coffers. The film has now amassed a domestic total of $338 million and a worldwide total that is hovering around $800 million.

“Hostiles” expanded into an additional 2,700 theaters this weekend and finished with $10 million. The film is set in 1892 and stars Christian Bale as a hardened Army captain asked to escort his former enemy, a Cheyenne chief, back to his homeland.

In fourth place is “The Greatest Showman” with $9.5 million. That raises the musical about P.T. Barnum’s domestic total to $126 million.

Fifth place goes to Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” with $8.5 million. The film, which tells the story behind The Washington Post’s publishing of the Pentagon Papers, has now earned $58 million domestically, $83 million worldwide.

In the wake of the Academy Award nominations that were released earlier in the week, “The Shape of Water” saw a massive 160-percent increase over last weekend’s totals with $5.7 million. The film’s domestic total has now reached $38 million.

Other films with impressive Oscar bumps include “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” with $3.6 million, an 87-percent increase overlast weekend, and “Lady Bird” with nearly $2 million, a 60-percent increase over last weekend.