Not So Quiet On The Western Front: WWI Drama '1917' Tops 'Skywalker' At The Box Office

The Great War had a great weekend.

Universal's World War I drama "1917" pushed to a weekend-best $36.5 million domestic box office take and then dug in to hold on to the lead over "Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker," which had won the previous weekend, but garnered less than half of the WWI epic this past weekend. 

"1917" had a limited release in late December, but went into theaters nationwide this weekend. It's already up to $60.4 million worldwide, a strong showing for Comcast Corporation CMCSA-owned Universal, which released only two of the top 10 grossing movies last year, "Furious 7," and "Jurassic World."

Walt Disney Co.'s DIS "Rise of Skywalker," still is far ahead of "1917," having raked in $478.2 million domestically and $1 billion globally after four weeks. This past weekend, the "Star Wars" film pulled in $15.1 million domestic. Disney had seven of last year's top 10 grossing films. 

BOX OFFICE: #1917Movie expanded wide to huge results, bringing in a phenomenal $14 MILLION (& an “A” CinemaScore) in its opening day. This sets the stage for a $36M weekend. This is right in line with ‘The Revenant’, which legged to $180M domestic with the same release strategy. pic.twitter.com/YjP0Ap93nF

— DR Movie News (@DRMovieNews1) January 11, 2020

"1917," directed by Sam Mendes and shot and edited to look as if it was made in one take, was on Monday's list of nominees for the Oscar for best picture and nine other awards. The film won best drama earlier this month at the Golden Globes. 

Mendes, who won the Golden Globe for best director for the movie, also is nominated for the best director Oscar. 

Comcast stock was up 1.58% Monday at $45.69.

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