NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Actuals: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Now the Second Highest Grossing Film of All-Time After $90.2M Third Weekend; 'Daddy’s Home' #2 with a Strong $29.2M; 'The Hateful Eight' #3 with a Modest $15.7M

By Daniel Garris

Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens continued to lead the box office with ease this weekend with a third weekend take of $90.24 million. That represented the largest third weekend gross of all-time, as The Force Awakens topped the previous $68.49 million record of Avatar by $21.75 million and by 32 percent. Thanks in part to continued strong word of mouth and to the New Year's holiday, The Force Awakens was down a very solid 39.5 percent from last weekend.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has grossed a massive $742.21 million in 17 days of release. That already makes the film the second highest grossing film of all-time unadjusted domestically, as the film zoomed past the respective $658.67 million and $652.27 million lifetime grosses of Titanic and Jurassic World. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now just $18.30 million away from surpassing the $760.51 million lifetime gross of Avatar to become the highest grossing film of all-time domestically. When adjusting for ticket price inflation, The Force Awakens is currently in 18th place on the all-time adjusted list. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently running 48 percent ahead of the $500.37 million 17-day take of Jurassic World and 111 percent ahead of the $352.11 million 17-day take of Avatar.

Paramount's Daddy's Home continued to exceed expectations this weekend with a second place take of $29.21 million. The PG-13 rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg was down just 25 percent from last weekend's stronger than expected start. Daddy's Home has been the clear alternative choice to The Force Awakens for moviegoers over the holidays and has grossed $93.89 million in just ten days. That places the film an impressive 34 percent ahead of the $69.95 million ten-day take of 2010's The Other Guys (which fell 51 percent in its second weekend to gross $17.41 million).

The Weinstein Company's The Hateful Eight took third place with $15.71 million. On the heels of last weekend's strong roadshow start, the Quentin Tarantino directed western had a much more modest performance this weekend upon expanding into wide release. The Hateful Eight debuted below expectations and a lackluster 48 percent below the $30.12 million 2012's Django Unchained earned in its first weekend of release. It is possible that this weekend's performance for The Hateful Eight was deflated a bit from the film's fairly last minute release date change, but at the same time, the film will soon be facing very new direct competition from Fox's The Revenant when that film expands into wide release this coming Friday. The Hateful Eight has grossed $29.05 million through ten days of release (five of which have been in wide release). The film received a modest B rating on CinemaScore, which suggests that the film isn't going over as well with moviegoers to the same extent that Tarantino's films normally do.

Universal's Sisters and Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip occupied fourth and fifth place this weekend with respective takes of $12.76 million and $12.07 million. Both films held up very nicely from last weekend, as Sisters was down 10 percent and The Road Chip was down 8 percent. Respective 17-day grosses stand at $67.65 million for The Road Chip and at $61.88 million for Sisters. That already places total gross to opening weekend ratios at 4.73 to 1 for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and at 4.44 to 1 for Sisters.

Fox's Joy and Paramount's The Big Short claimed sixth and seventh place with respective grosses of $10.21 million and $9.06 million. Joy was down a solid 40 percent from last weekend, while The Big Short was down a slim 14 percent. Joy has grossed $38.52 million in ten days, while The Big Short has grossed $33.06 million in 24 days. However, given its far better hold this weekend and its upcoming expansion on Friday; The Big Short should have no problem moving past Joy before much longer.

Sony's Concussion and Warner's Point Break landed in eighth and ninth place with respective takes of $7.85 million and $6.82 million. Both films held up nicely, as Concussion was down just 25 percent from last weekend, while Point Break was down 30 percent. Concussion and Point Break likely both benefited this weekend from their Christmas weekend debuts having been deflated by the direct competition from the massive second weekend performance of The Force Awakens. Respective ten day grosses stand at $25.27 million for Concussion and at $22.40 million for Point Break.