'Rogue One' dominates the box-office universe for fourth week
LOS ANGELES — Star Wars is still dominating the movie universe, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story leading the box office for a fourth straight week.
The intergalactic adventure edged out the NASA drama Hidden Figures for the top spot this weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Rogue One brought in $21.97 million. Hidden Figures — which expanded by more than 2,000 theaters after opening in limited release — collected $21.8 million.
"It's a great weekend for space movies," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box office tracker comScore, noting that the Jennifer Lawrence-Chris Pratt space story Passengers also remains among the top 10.
Rogue One, though, has been unstoppable, Dergarabedian said, and is expected to top Finding Dory as the biggest box-office success of 2016.
The animated animal musical Sing was in third place this weekend, taking in another $19.5 million for a three-week haul of $213.3 million. Underworld: Blood Wars made its debut in fourth place with $13.1 million, followed by the celebrated musical La La Land with $10 million ($51.7 million total).
Rogue's prequel tale of the Rebels who steal the plans for the Empire's Death Star weapon has earned $477.3 million to date domestically and a worldwide total of $914.4 million, according to comScore.
The scenario is a near remake of one year ago, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens kept control of the box office on its way to $2 billion worldwide.
Final figures are expected Monday.