LOS ANGELES -- Moviegoers bid adieu to 2016 and welcomed 2017 over the four-day holiday weekend, spending about $200 million to see just the 10 top-grossing films, a pack led once again by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
In second place was Universal's animated musical comedy Sing, with about $57.3 million, to bring its two-week domestic box office total to about $181 million.
The movie, featuring the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane and others at the top of its cast, fared modestly with critics, posting a 69 percent positive score at rottentomatoes.com and a 60 (out of 100) at metacritic.com aggregate movie review sites, but faring noticeably better with filmgoers, who awarded it an A rating, according to cinemascore.com.
Those runaway hits are contributing to what industry sources are projecting to be a record year at the box office. Movie executives are expecting total domestic box office revenue to hit $11.3 billion
That is tempered, however, by the expectation that the number of tickets sold remained essentially flat in 2016 compared to 2015, and that because of the increase in movie streaming, studios are continuing to see profits drop from home video sales.
Also in its second week of release, Columbia Pictures' sci-fi thriller Passengers placed third with $21 million.
Disney retained a second film in the Top 5, with Moana continuing to pull in moviegoers in significant numbers after six weeks, adding about $15.2 million to elevate its domestic total to $214 million.
Rounding out the Top 5, Fox's comedy Why Him? starring Bryan Cranston and James Franco, posted an estimated four-day gross of $13 million, bumping its two-week take to $37.7 million.
One of the best-reviewed films of 2016, Paramount's screen adaptation of August Wilson's play Fences, landed at No. 6, with $13.1 million, raising its domestic total to about $33 million.
In seventh place, Lionsgate Films' La La Land, the L.A.-based movie musical, took in about $12.6 million while still in limited release. Its four-week domestic total has reached about $37.3 million as director Damien Chazelle's latest is poised to open today on more than 1,500 screens.
After two weeks of release, Fox's video game adaptation Assassin's Creed logged about $11.4 million, putting its domestic gross at $42.4 million.
Warner Bros.' Harry Potter series spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them brought in about $5.6 million, which puts its domestic gross at about $226 million.
At No. 12, the RSA Films release Manchester by the Sea added an estimated $4.2 million, pushing its domestic gross to just under $28.5 million in seven weeks.
Having opened on Christmas Day in just 25 theaters, Fox's Hidden Figures, which focuses on three math-and-science-savvy black women who contributed significantly to the U.S. space program in the 1960s, added about $1.2 million through Monday, on its way to wide release today in about 2,500 theaters.
The based-on-a-true-story drama stars Taraji P. Henson as math genius Katherine Johnson and Octavia Spencer and R&B-pop singer Janelle Monae as her two comrades in overcoming prejudices against women and black people.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday (unless otherwise indicated), followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday by comScore:
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Disney, $65,522,676, 4,157 locations, $15,762 average, $440,901,381, three weeks.
Sing, Universal, $57,290,420, 4,029 locations, $14,220 average, $180,891,910, two weeks.
Passengers, Columbia, $21,074,190, 3,478 locations, $6,059 average, $66,177,803, two weeks.
Moana, Disney, $15,198,280, 2,775 locations, $5,477 average, $214,257,319, six weeks.
Why Him? 20th Century Fox, $13,121,668, 3,008 locations, $4,362 average, $37,680,255, two weeks.
Fences, Paramount, $13,111,773, 2,301 locations, $5,698 average, $32,813,917, three weeks.
La La Land, Lionsgate, $12,576,343, 750 locations, $16,768 average, $37,291,542, four weeks.
Assassin's Creed, 20th Century Fox, $11,365,875, 2,996 locations, $3,794 average, $42,409,393, two weeks.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Warner Bros., $5,612,945, 1,842 locations, $3,047 average, $225,627,739, seven weeks.
Collateral Beauty, Warner Bros., $5,406,439, 2,745 locations, $1,970 average, $27,062,056, three weeks.
Office Christmas Party, Paramount, $4,548,443, 2,347 locations, $1,938 average, $52,095,118, four weeks.
Manchester by the Sea, Roadside Attractions, $4,244,121, 1,206 locations, $3,519 average, $28,468,772, seven weeks.
Lion, The Weinstein Co., $3,002,227, 525 locations, $5,719 average, $6,834,730, six weeks.
Dangal, UTV Communications, $2,691,952, 338 locations, $7,964 average, $9,816,471, two weeks.
Jackie, Fox Searchlight, $2,060,048, 359 locations, $5,738 average, $7,536,054, five weeks.
Arrival, Paramount, $1,848,977, 545 locations, $3,393 average, $92,681,309, eight weeks.
Hidden Figures, 20th Century Fox, $1,191,683, 25 locations, $47,667 average, $2,658,078, two weeks.
Trolls, 20th Century Fox, $921,563, 418 locations, $2,205 average, $150,588,191, nine weeks.
Doctor Strange, Disney, $861,738, 466 locations, $1,849 average, $230,323,048, nine weeks.
Hacksaw Ridge, Lionsgate, $529,446, 352 locations, $1,504 average, $64,738,291, nine weeks.
MovieStyle on 01/06/2017