LOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Disney and Lucasfilm's "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" dominated the weekend's box office with force, debuting with a massive 175.5 million U.S. dollars in North America for a global cume of 373.5 million dollars, according to studio figures collected by measurement firm Comscore.
"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" is the third installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following 2015's "The Force Awakens" and 2017's "The Last Jedi," and the final installment of nine Star Wars saga films.
The ticket sales of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in opening weekend is far behind its trilogy predecessors. "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi" brought in 248 million dollars and 220 million dollars in opening weekend in North America respectively. But the debut of the latest Star Wars film is still the third biggest of 2019 in North America, after only "Avengers: Endgame" and "The Lion King," and the 3rd biggest December opening ever.
It's also the 7th Disney release of the year to post an opening weekend over 100 million dollars in North America. Seemingly an unstoppable entertainment juggernaut, Disney has already powered past a world cume milestone of 10 billion U.S. dollars for 2019 with a record breaking six films being inducted into coveted Billion Dollar Club in a single year.
Internationally, "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" took in 198 million dollars from 52 markets this weekend, including 12.1 million dollars from the Chinese mainland.
"'The Rise of Skywalker' had much to live up to with the previous two films setting an incredibly high bar in terms of both box-office and critical reviews," said Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at Comscore.
"Though this film did not enjoy the opening weekend success of 'The Last Jedi' and 'The Force Awakens,' a 175.5-million-dollar North American debut and 373.5-million-dollar globally shows that people around the world still love the Star Wars brand, characters and mythology and the potential is certainly there for the film to eventually earn 1 billion dollars worldwide," he told Xinhua.
Sony's fantasy adventure comedy film "Jumanji: The Next Level" moved to second place with 26.12 million dollars in its second weekend, pushing its North American total to 101.93 million dollars for a global cume of 312 million dollars through Sunday.
Directed by Jake Kasdan and based on the book "Jumanji" by Chris Van Allsburg, the film is the second sequel to 1995's "Jumanji," following 2017's "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle." In the latest follow-up, starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan among others, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, the players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored, from the arid deserts to the snowy mountains, in order to escape the world's most dangerous game.
Disney's animated fantasy "Frozen 2" came in third with 12.3 million dollars in its fifth weekend for a North American total of 386.5 million dollars. The film has grossed 1,103.7 million dollars worldwide to date.
The follow-up arrived six years after the original "Frozen." The film features the return of the Academy Award-winning team -- directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck and the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Evan Rachel Wood, Josh Gad and Jonathan Groff. It brings back Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and Kristoff, as they venture beyond the kingdom of Arendelle to find out why Elsa was born with magical powers.
Universal's musical fantasy film "Cats" opened in fourth with 6.5 million dollars this weekend.
Directed by Tom Hooper and starring Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Ray Winstone, Ian McKellen and Taylor Swift among others, the film is based on the stage musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the poems from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" by T. S. Eliot.
Lionsgate's mystery film "Knives Out" finished fifth with 6.12 million dollars in its fourth weekend for a North American cume of 89.57 million dollars.
Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the film stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, and Jamie Lee Curtis, among others. The plot follows a modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a suspect. When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate.
