"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" ascends to top spot at North American box office

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Sony's "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" sped past "Insidious: The Last Key" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" to the top spot at North American box office in its third weekend with an estimated 36 million U.S. dollars.

The action adventure comedy film has brought in a massive 244.3 million dollars in total in North American theatres to date, according to the studio figures collected by comScore. Directed by Jake Kasdan and stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan, the sequel to 1995's "Jumanji" follows four teenagers who are transported into the video game world of Jumanji and must work together to beat the game in order to return to the real world.

Universal's supernatural horror film "Insidious: The Last Key" opened surprisingly in second place with an estimated 29.2 million dollars in its debut. The fourth installment of the "Insidious" series from Blumhouse Productions was directed by Adam Robitel and stars Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell. The film follows a brilliant parapsychologist, Elise Rainier, as she investigates a haunting in her childhood home.

Disney's release of Lucasfilm's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" landed in third place in its fourth weekend with an estimated 23.5 million dollars, pushing it total to a whopping 572.5 million dollars in North America to date. The film passed "Beauty and the Beast" as the top grossing film in North America in 2017 after only half a month of its debut. The eighth installment in the "Star Wars" saga has grossed around 1,205.2 million dollars worldwide through Sunday.

20th Century Fox's musical biopic "The Greatest Showman" came in fourth with an estimated 13.8 million dollars in its third weekend. Universal's musical comedy film "Pitch Perfect 3" finished fifth with an estimated 10.2 million dollars in its third weekend. Enditem