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Jumanji tops US box office for third straight weekend

New York — Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle outdid another weekend's worth of newcomers to top the North American box office for the third straight weekend, making the surprise hit the fifth-highest grossing film of all time for Sony Pictures.

Jumanji, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, sold $20m in tickets, according to studio estimates on Sunday, bringing its five-week domestic total to $317m. That makes Sony's reboot the studio's best non-Spider-Man movie domestically, not adjusting for inflation.

The film's unexpectedly strong staying power has lent a boost to the January box office but kept new releases from reaching the top of the box-office chart. Jumanji has also reigned overseas, where it has grossed $450.8m and topped all films internationally for three straight weeks.

The war drama 12 Strong, starring Chris Hemsworth, debuted in second with $16.5m in ticket sales. The Warner Bros. release, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is a fact-based tale, adapted from Doug Stanton's best-seller Horse Soldiers, about a group of Special Forces soldiers sent into northern Afghanistan just weeks after September 11.

12 Strong appealed largely to an older crowd. Seventy-nine percent of its audience was over the age of 25, said Warner Bros.

The heist thriller Den of Thieves slotted in at third place with an opening weekend of $15.3m. The STXfilms release stars Gerard Butler and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.

Though Paddington 2 disappointed last weekend in its debut, the acclaimed sequel slid just 25 percent in its second week. Paddington 2, which has set a new record for the most widely reviewed 100-percent fresh movie on Rotten Tomatoes, grossed $8.2m in its second week of domestic release. Warner Bros. acquired the film's North American distribution from The Weinstein Co. in November.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread expanded nationwide, taking in $3.4m from 896 theatres. The Focus Features release, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in what the actor has said will be his final performance, has grossed $6.2m.

Also notable: Star Wars: The Last Jedi crossed the $600m mark domestically with $6.6m in its sixth week of release. The Disney release stands at $604.3m domestically — or no. 9 all-time, not accounting for inflation — and $1.296bn worldwide.

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