Hollywood Closes 2016 with Record-Breaking Sales at Box Office

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The year started with a Star Wars movie in the No. 1 position, and ended with another Star Wars movie in first place, as the Hollywood movie industry closed out 2016 with record-breaking sales.

Overall, the industry sold a record-breaking $11.4 billion in tickets domestically in 2016, according to studio estimates from comScore.

Analysts at comScore said Monday that "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" was on track to close out the four-day holiday weekend with $64.3 million in weekend sales. It was on the way to $439.7 million worth of tickets sales in three weeks in the United States and Canada.

This weekend, "Sing" was in second place with $56.4 million in sales, and $180 million over two weeks. "Passengers" was in third place, with a $20.7 million in weekend sales and a two-week track record of $66 million.

Rounding out the 10 most-popular films in North America, as calculated by the studios and collated by comScore, were "Moana" ($14.3 million), "Why Him?" ($13 million), "Fences" ($12.7 million), "La La Land" ($12.3 million), "Assassin's Creed" ($10.9 million), "Manchester by The Sea" ($5.5 million), "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them" ($5.4 million).

-- City News Service, photo courtesy of Lucasfilms