'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' Takes Box Office Crown From 'Jumanji'
"Maze Runner: The Death Cure" is having a great launch, as the final chapter of the "Maze Runner" series takes over the box office charts for this weekend. The movie managed to grab the top spot from "Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle," which has been the number one movie for four weekends in a row until now.
It was not exactly a high bar to clear at this point, though, as Cinema Blend pointed out. "Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle" has already saturated the cinemas during its reign over four consecutive weekends, at this point.
"Maze Runner: The Death Cure" is the only new movie coming out to a wide release this weekend, too, so it did not have much in the way of new competition, either. Additionally, the fact that it's a trilogy ender means that fans who may have missed out on the first two movies are putting in extra effort to see how it all wraps up, at least.
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Even with all these advantages, "The Death Cure" still falls a bit short of the first two movies in the trilogy, just in terms of the launch figures. The first "Maze Runner" title launched to a box-office haul of $32.5 million haul in 2014, as Variety notes. The follow-up sequel, "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials," did modestly well with $30.6 million in 2015.
In contrast, the launch weekend passed by "Maze Runner: The Death Cure" with just $23.5 million in recorded sales.
It was still high enough to leave a significant gap against second placer "Jumanji," which took in $16.4 million in ticket receipts this weekend. It would seem that overall, a winter launch has hurt the chances of the third "Maze Runner" movie making a box-office mark.
The delay of the trilogy ender may have been a factor, too. Both of the earlier "Maze Runner" movies have launched with one year in between, until an injury main star Dylan O'Brien suffered on set forced the production team to push back the opening by a year.
