LOS ANGELES • Sorry, Batman. So close, yet so far away, Star-Lord. Better luck next time, Captain Jack Sparrow.
Rather, the three most popular movies at theatres in North America in 2017 - Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty And The Beast and Wonder Woman - were each driven by female characters, something that has not happened in at least 37 years, as far back as full box-office data is available.
The top comedy of the year, Girls Trip, was also anchored by women, as was the top film to play in limited release, Lady Bird.
"Women truly emerged as the giants of cinema this year," said Mr Paul Dergarabedian, a senior comScore analyst, adding Oscar contenders such as The Shape Of Water, The Post and I, Tonya to the list.
The Post, starring Meryl Streep as a newspaper publisher coming into her own, has been playing for only 10 days in three cities, but has already taken in about US$2 million (S$2.7 million), a strong total that bodes well for its Jan 12 wide release.
Between Friday and Sunday, The Last Jedi collected an estimated US$52.4 million to become the No. 1 movie of the year in the United States and Canada, with a three-week total of US$517 million. Overseas, it has taken in US$523.3 million more to clear the US$1 billion milestone in worldwide grosses in less than three weeks. It will arrive in China, the world's second-largest movie market, on Friday.
The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson, includes prominent male characters such as Luke Skywalker. But the film belongs to a quartet of impressive female characters - Rey, General Leia, Rose Tico and Vice-Admiral Holdo - so much so that online trolls and some franchise purists have whined.
Disney also had the No. 2 movie of the year. The live-action remake of Beauty And The Beast, directed by Bill Condon and starring Emma Watson as the warbling Belle, collected US$504 million in North America.
Third place went to that breaker of comic-book movie glass ceilings, Wonder Woman, which lassoed US$412.6 million for Warner Bros, minting two new A-list stars in the process - actress Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins.
Marvel superheroes also did some heavy lifting. Led by Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 was the fourth-biggest movie of the year, while Spider-Man: Homecoming rounded out the top five. Thor: Ragnarok and Logan made the top 10.
Underneath those positive results, however, was a grim reality - ticket sales were propped up by higher prices. Attendance declined by roughly 4 per cent to 1.26 billion, according to analysts, the lowest total in about two decades, as a string of big-budget films stumbled.
Disappointments included Justice League, starring Ben Affleck as Batman; The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise; Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow; Baywatch, starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron; and Alien: Covenant, directed by Ridley Scott.
Scott also had a tough time over the weekend with All The Money In The World (Sony), a crime drama about the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III and his grandfather's refusal to pay a US$17-million ransom. The film, which cost Imperative Entertainment more than US$50 million to make, collected about US$5.5 million.
It was a miracle the movie arrived at all. To the astonishment of Hollywood, Scott - only six weeks before the film's release - expunged the disgraced Kevin Spacey, replacing him with Christopher Plummer and refilming extensive sequences. Reviews for the retooled movie were mostly positive. Ticket buyers gave the film a B grade in CinemaScore exit polls.
Also of note for the year in moviegoing - only one animated movie, Despicable Me 3, ranked among the top 10 ticket sellers. In 2016, four films made the cut (Finding Dory, The Secret Life Of Pets, Zootopia and Sing). The pullback may involve blurring boundaries - chunks of superhero movies are essentially animated - and sequelitis: Cars 3 underperformed for Pixar.
Worldwide, four 2017 titles went past US$1 billion: Beauty And The Beast at US$1.26 billion, The Fate Of The Furious at US$1.24 billion, The Last Jedi at US$1.04 billion and Despicable Me 3 at US$1.03 billion.
NYTIMES, REUTERS
