US week-end Box Office analysis: December 13-15

Wishing Good Cheer to everyone this holiday season.

Sony's Jumanji: The Next Level debuted this weekend and took the top spot at the box office with $60.1M, exceeding most expectations and setting an all-time record for a comedy opening in December. This bodes well for the film's prospects for a long, productive run.  The original Jumanji (2017) opened with $36.2M and went on to earn $404.5M - 11 times the results of its first weekend.

Disney's Frozen 2 continued its successful run, earning a strong second place this weekend with $19.2M, and $366.5M overall after 4 weeks. Lionsgate's Knives Out followed with $9.3M and total of $78.9M after three weeks.  We give special recognition to A24 for its successful premiere of Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler. The R-Rated crime thriller opened in 5 locations to $525,498, producing a spectacular Per-Theatre-Average of $105,100, the best for any film ever A24 has ever released. Distribution will expand nationwide on Christmas Day.

Our Industry News Roundup begins with a deep dive on the science of designing ticket lines, essential to the success of any organization that serves the public.  We pay tribute to the well-known and loved film actor Danny Aiello, who passed away last week at the age of 86.  We highlight several articles about the upcoming industry awards.  We discuss the nominations announced last week by the Screen Actors Guild on their 2020 SAG Awards and Peter Bart from Deadline discusses his experience of being targeted by the studios for his vote through their sophisticated, high-touch promotional campaigns.  In the Hollywood Report, Martin Grove provides his list of the 14 must-see films for this year's Oscar voters.

The Gower Street's Rolling 8-Week Forecast now extends out through the last two weeks of January. While the forecast for these weeks drops significantly from those earlier January, this is expected and typical.  Still, January 2020 is projected to outperform January 2019 by as much as 30%.

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.