NEW YORK (NYTimes) - An unspectacular week at the box office led Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle back to No. 1. The action movie took in US$27 million (S$36 million) from Friday through Sunday to bring its domestic total to US$283 million after four weeks.

Jumanji also topped the Chinese box office and has made more than US$550 million worldwide. Its success has cemented Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson as box office near-guarantees.

Less successful was the Liam Neeson vehicle The Commuter, which opened with US$13.4 million, according to comScore which compiles box office data. That is a far cry from Taken 3, which arrived at the same calendar weekend in 2015 and took in US$40.4 million.

The Post, a well-reviewed recounting of The Washington Post's efforts to release the Pentagon Papers that stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, took in US$18 million in its first week in wide release, good for second place.

Fox has been slowly rolling out the Oscar contender to build word-of-mouth, and is hoping for attention from the Academy Awards to give it a long tail.

Despite a 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes, Paddington 2 made just US$10.6 million in its arrival in North America, about less than half of what its 2014 prequel made in its first weekend. The movie has already made US$125 million overseas.

I, Tonya and Lady Bird both increased their earnings compared to their previous weeks, perhaps thanks to victories at the Golden Globes.