Screendollars Newsletter for the week of December 23rd.  In Boston, there were 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight today, and movin' on up from here on out.   You can see how much daylight you had where you are by going here: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun.

The force was strong with Star Wars at the box office this weekend.  In its debut, the current installment Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker grossed $175.5M in North America and $373.5M Worldwide. It was the 3rd biggest 2019 opening, after Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King.  All three films came out of divisions of Disney - Marvel, Disney Animation and Lucasfilm.

Sony's Jumanji: The Next Level delivered strong results in its second week, taking second spot on the charts with $26.1M. Also impressive was the continued performance of Disney's Frozen 2, adding another $12.3M in ticket sales after five weeks in theaters, a total to-date of $386.5M. 

This was a busy week in Industry News. Our roundup begins with Cineworld's announcement of its agreement to acquire Cineplex of Canada. Cineworld will become the largest exhibitor in North America after adding Cineplex's 165 locations and 1695 screens to its US-based Regal operations (acquired in early 2018). We highlight an article from the Hollywood Reporter running down this year's crop of Oscar-nominated foreign films, considered by cinephiles to have been a particularly good year. We commemorate the 10th anniversary of the release of James Cameron's Avatar with an article discussing the past, present and future of 3D films in cinema.  We conclude with a top 10 list from Variety, their critics' selections for the best films of the decade.

And even though Christmas 2019 is still upon us, Martin Grove looks forward in the Hollywood Report to the nine wide-release films scheduled for Christmas 2020, offering something for every demographic.

Gower Street's Rolling 8-Week Forecast extends through the week of February 7th, when Warner Bros. releases Birds of Prey starring Margot Robbie. This DC Comic film follows in the footsteps of other successful mid-winter releases of adventure/superhero fare: Deadpool (2016) and Black Panther (2018). Gower is predicting a 13% increase in year-over-year revenues for the week of 2/7/2020 when compared with the same week from 2019.

We conclude with our regular film data and tables: the Weekly Film Calendar covering releases over the next six weeks, recently announced Studio Release Changes, a list of Upcoming Industry Screenings, the latest MPAA film ratings and a list of important new trailers released last week.