Coverage: “Rogue One” tops box office for second week

“Rogue One” collected $96.1 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters during the weekend, researcher ComScore Inc. said Monday, giving Walt Disney Co. its second consecutive weekend win.

Rob Golum of Bloomberg News had the news:

That beat four new releases, including the animated feature “Sing” from Universal Pictures, which opened in second place. “Passengers,” a Sony Corp. sci-fi with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt landed in third place, while ‘Why Him?”, a Fox comedy, placed fourth. “Assassin’s Creed” from 20th Century Fox made its debut in fifth place.

At this rate, total North American box office sales for the year are projected to be a record $11.3 billion, according to ComScore, topping 2015’s $11.14 billion.

The new “Star Wars” is the latest driver for Disney’s record box-office run, a streak fueled by animated and live-action films. The studio’s hits this year include “Finding Dory” from Pixar, Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” and “The Jungle Book.” Disney has topped $7 billion in global ticket sales this year, an industry first.

“Rogue One” is the second of at least six films that Disney has on tap to extend the “Star Wars” series created by George Lucas. The latest picture is a prequel — about the events that led up to the original 1977 movie.

Will Robinson of Entertainment Weekly reports that “Rogue One” has passed $500 million worldwide:

Disney estimates Rogue One: A Star Wars Story raked in $64.4 million domestically during the three-day holiday weekend, according to a report distributed Monday. That, along with the $47.1 million earned worldwide in the same period, propelled the film to an estimated $523.8 million worldwide.

Rogue One remained the No. 1 movie in the U.S., U.K., and a handful of other markets despite the way the calendar fell this year. Theaters are often closed in Europe on Christmas Eve, while U.K. screens are typically shuttered on Christmas Day, according to Disney.

In its opening weekend, Rogue One raked in $155 million. The latest Star Wars offering is the cap in a great year for Disney, which earned an industry record $2.49 billion in 2016 before theatergoers could even see Rogue One.

Carolina A. Miranda of the Los Angeles Times reports that the industry will pass $11 billion in ticket sales for the year:

Also for the second year in a row, North American ticket sales are projected to exceed $11 billion, according to the entertainment data firm ComScore. And as the year comes to a close, 2016 is expected to see a 1.5% increase in ticket sales over 2015 ($11.3 billion versus $11.1 billion).

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” vanquished all others in its second week of wide release, hauling in $96.1 million over the four-day holiday weekend — with an additional $237.4 million from international screens.

That puts the Gareth Edwards-directed action flick, set just before the events of George Lucas’ 1970s trilogy, well above the Disney film’s approximately $200-million production budget.

Coming in at No.  2 for the 2016 holiday weekend was Illumination and Universal’s “Sing.” An animated musical comedy about the adventures of a singing pig named Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) and a koala who is in over his head (Matthew McConaughey), it pulled in $56.1 million in domestic box office over the four-day weekend.