Disney’s “Moana” Leads North America Box Office for Three Weekends

The animated Disney film “Moana” outran Paramount’s “Office Christmas Party” to become the most popular movie for the third straight weekend in North America this Sunday.

“Moana” was projected to deal USD18.8 million in ticket sales in three-day weekend, just ahead of the R-rated “Office Christmas Party” and its USD17.5 million debut, according to studio figures gathered by comScore.

“Moana” has sold USD145 million in 19 days in the North America market, and as for overseas, the animated film brought in an estimated USD23.5 million as its overseas gross grows to USD93.8 million.

“Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them”, the Harry Potter derivative, was on track for a box office of USD10.8 million this weekend and USD199.3 million in North America in its 24 days exhibition.

In the fourth place, “Arrival” was poised to deal USD5.6 million in admission sales this weekend, for a five-week total of USD81.5 million.

And in the fifth place was “Doctor Strange”, with a box office of USD4.6 million this weekend and USD222.4 million over five weeks.

This weekend also saw a couple of major awards season contenders in “Manchester by the Sea”. “La La Land” delivers terrific performances along with the strong expansion of Focus’ “Nocturnal Animals” as well as the not-so-strong expansion of EuropaCorp’s “Miss Sloane”. The old-fashioned love story musical “La La Land” opened in just five theaters and sold USD855,000 in tickets.

“A mind-blowing, record smashing per theater average of 171,000 dollars,” said movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “If this is any indication of the film’s future prospects, then this is just the start of what looks to be an amazing run for director Damien Chazelle’s masterpiece, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.” (PNA/Xinhua)CVL/SSC