NEW YORK (NYTimes) - Six starkly different films from 20th Century Fox appeared on the box office charts over the weekend, giving the studio control of more than 50 per cent of ticket sales in North America.
A sequel to a sequel, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, with its zombie plague and revenge-determined teenagers, arrived to about US$23.5 million (S$31 million) in ticket sales domestically, dethroning Sony's Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle as the No. 1 attraction at multiplexes.
Another Fox movie, The Greatest Showman, a musical that has become a slow-building, word-of-mouth hit, delivered about US$9.5 million in ticket sales (No. 4), for a new domestic total of US$126.5 million.
Three dramas with varied production budgets, each nominated for best picture at the Oscars - The Post, The Shape Of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - took in an additional US$18.2 million for Fox and its speciality label, Fox Searchlight.
Rounding out the Fox portfolio was the animated Ferdinand, which collected about US$1 million, for a new total of US$80.5 million.
Jumanji took in about US$16.4 million for second place and a new total of US$338.1 million.
Third place went to Hostiles (Entertainment Studios), a western anchored by Christian Bale. Overlooked by Oscar voters, it received solid reviews and collected a better-than-expected US$10.2 million.
