HOLLYWOOD─It was a busy weekend at the box-office, as we near the Christmas holiday. The apparent last chapter in the “Star Wars” saga, ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ dominated theaters with an impressive haul of $175.5 million. Yes, those are big numbers, but it doesn’t come close to the debuts of its predecessors “The Force Awakens” which earned $248 million, while “The Last Jedi” earned $220 million. I think it’s safe to say that the fatigue is finally settling in on the highly popular franchise or it could be the direct result of the disappointment with “The Last Jedi.”

With that said, there are no major movies opening Christmas Day, so movie lovers should expect “The Rise of Skywalker” to dominate the box-office for the next few weeks. Last week’s victor, “Jumanji: The Next Level” dropped to second place with $26.1 million and has already crossed the $100 million mark at the domestic box-office. “Frozen II” landed in third place with $12.6 million. The Disney adventure has now amounted over $386 million at the domestic box-office.

Proving that sometimes a Broadway classic doesn’t need a big screen debut is the arrival of “Cats” which was dead on arrival. The musical starring Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift and a host of others earned a paltry $6.5 million. Yeah, “Cats” might be the biggest bomb of the year people. I don’t KNOW how anyone envisioned a flick where people appear like cats and sing like the felines would be entertaining.

Rounding out the top five was the mystery “Knives Out” with $6.1 million. The weekend’s other arrival, “Bombshell” didn’t shake the box-office as many expected landing in sixth place with only $5.1 million. Here’s hoping buzz continues to build around this drama that is one hell of a movie in my opinion.