´Jumanji´ claws its way back to top of North American box office

LOS ANGELES: Sony´s "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" managed the rare feat this weekend of regaining the No. 1 spot in North American box offices in its seventh week out, according to industry estimates.

Taking in $11 million for the three-day weekend -- as competition with football´s Super Bowl depressed ticket sales -- "Jumanji" became the first film since "Titanic," in 1998, to win a February weekend after a nationwide release in December, HollywoodReporter.com reported.

The family flick, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart, follows a group of teens who find themselves transported inside the video game world of Jumanji. Its domestic cumulative take of just over $350 million makes it only the third Sony film to reach that mark.

Last weekend´s North American leader, Fox´s "Maze Runner: The Death Cure," slipped to second place with a take of $10.2 million, according to the Exhibitor Relations website. The dystopian sci-fi film follows the harrowing adventures of three teens who have survived a destructive virus infecting the world.

In third spot was a new release, "Winchester" from Lionsgate, with takings of $9.3 million despite abysmal reviews.

The movie, a gothic thriller, was inspired by the real-life story of Sarah Winchester, the 19th-century heiress to the Winchester gun-making fortune, who built an enormous, spookily elaborate mansion in California to appease the spirits of people killed by her family´s firearms.

Despite the draw of Helen Mirren in the title role, the film scored a paltry 9 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Even she could not "class up... this super-silly feature," The New York Times said.

Fox´s "The Greatest Showman," with Hugh Jackman as larger-than-life circus impresario P.T. Barnum, clung to fourth spot, taking in $7.8 million.

And in fifth was Entertainment Studios´ "Hostiles," starring Christian Bale in a gritty Western about a US cavalry officer who escorts a Cheyenne chief and his family to Montana in 1892. It took in an estimated $5.5 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

"The Post" ($5.2 million)

"12 Strong" ($4.7 million)

"Den of Thieves" ($4.7 million)

"The Shape of Water" ($4.3 million)

"Paddington 2" ($3.1 million)