A three-peat for ‘Aquaman’

The film tops the list for a third straight week, with ‘Escape Room’ as runner-up.

“Aquaman” is still the champ at the box office three weeks in, but the highconcept thriller “Escape Room” also drew crowds in its debut weekend.

Warner Bros. on Sunday says that “Aquaman” has added an estimated $30.7 million from more than 4,000 North American theaters this past weekend. That brings its domestic grosses to nearly $260 million. The DC Comics film starring Jason Momoa has been riding a wave of success globally too.

Worldwide it has made $940.7 million, making it by far the highest-grossing film in the modern DC Extended Universe slate (No. 2 is “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” with $873.6 million).

Even with the slew of holiday releases, including blockbusters and awards darlings, Sony’s PG-13-rated thriller “Escape Room” managed to sneak into second place in its first weekend in theaters, generating an estimated $18 million in ticket sales — double its production budget.

The film stars Taylor Russell, Deborah Ann Woll and Logan Miller and was directed by Adam Robitel. It got mixed reviews from critics and audiences, but that didn’t seem to matter when it came to the bottom line.

“Movies that open in the early part of January don’t get a lot of respect, but this was a great profit-maker,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “Sony took perfect advantage of what is typically a marketplace devoid of newcomers and made box-office hay out of it.”

Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns” landed in third place in its third weekend with $15.8 million. The nostalgic musical has earned $138.7 million domestically. Globally, it’s made $257.9 million.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” took fourth with $13 million and “Bumblebee” capped the top five with $12.8 million.

The Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” fell only 25% in its second weekend, adding $5.8 million to take seventh place. “Vice,” starring Christian Bale as the former vice president, has now earned $29.8 million but has an uphill climb to even meet its $60-million production budget.

In limited release, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic “On the Basis of Sex” continued to perform well, with $1.7 million in 112 theaters.