Star Wars still rules box office

LOS ANGELES - Star Wars: The Force Awakens saw its latest box office numbers soften a bit but it remains the unchallenged leader on North American screens as its record earnings continue to mount, industry figures showed Sunday.

The latest Star Wars space epic took in US$88 million (S$125 million) for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday period, down 41 per cent from the corresponding week-earlier period, Exhibitor Relations said.

But the film still accounted for 43 per cent of the combined ticket sales of all top 12 films. In its first three weeks the movie has now taken in more than US$740 million at North American box offices.

The much anticipated seventh instalment of the blockbuster saga, showing on 4,134 screens across North America, last week surpassed the US$1 billion mark in global box office sales in record time.

A distant second in the latest numbers was Daddy's Home - a sharp-edged comedy about the uncomfortable competition between a stepfather, played by Will Ferrell, and the biological father, Mark Wahlberg - which took in US$29 million in the latest three-day period, down from its US$38.7 million opening weekend.

But The Hateful Eight, the latest film from bad boy director Quentin Tarantino, more than tripled its opening-weekend take to surge from tenth to third on the list, at US$16 million for the three-day period.

Holding onto fourth place was Sisters, a comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, at US$12.5 million, followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip, with revenues of US$11.8 million.

Joy, whose director David O. Russell has known both commercial and critical success, slipped from third place to sixth, despite the combined star power of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. It netted US$10.4 million.

Results for the rest of the top 10 were as follows:

7. The Big Short (US$9 million)

8. Concussion (US$8 million)

9. Point Break (US$6.8 million)

10. Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (US$4.6 million).