LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" added another 88.3 million U.S. dollars in its third weekend in cinemas in the United States and Canada, pushing its total box office take to within reach of the all-time record in North America.
The latest installment of Lucasfilm's "Star Wars" science fiction franchise, directed by J.J. Abrams, has now made 740 million dollars in North America in just 17 days, helping it secure the second place in all-time box office in North America, just 20 million dollars behind Director James Cameron's "Avatar", which made 760 million dollars during its 2004 release, according to figures reported by Rentrak.
In second place for the second straight weekend is the comedy "Daddy's Home" starring Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg, which took in 29 million dollars in its second weekend in theaters.
Third place goes to director Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight," which made 16.24 million dollars in its first weekend in wide release at 2,474 locations around North America.
Rounding out the rest 10 most-popular movies of the weekend were "Sisters" (12.5 million dollars), "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip" (11.8 million), "Joy" (10.4 million), "The Big Short" (9 million), "Concussion" (8 million), "Point Break" (6.8 million), and "Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2" (4.6 million).