“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” celebrated the passing of 2016 in style, becoming the year’s second-highest box office earner Saturday.

The stand-alone “Star Wars” film took in $14.5 million on New Year’s Eve, rocketing past “Captain America: Civil War” for the distinction of the year’s No. 2 movie, behind Pixar Animation’s “Finding Dory.”

“Rogue One” is looking at a four-day holiday weekend total of about $63 million, taking its domestic total to $439 million.

The weekend’s other big hit is Illumination Entertainment’s animated musical “Sing,” which is on track to gross $53 million over the four days, putting its total earnings north of $177 million.


“Passengers,” “Moana” and “Fences” round out the top five.

“Fences,” an adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, remained strong in its second wide-release weekend, eyeing a four-day total of about $13 million and a $32 million cumulative take. That total already puts “Fences” in the box office neighborhood of such past play adaptations as “Doubt” and “Closer.” The movie is expected to earn a handful of Oscar nominations later this month.

Another awards contender doing even more spectacular box office is the romantic musical “La La Land,” which enjoyed the highest per-screen average of any movie in somewhat wide release this weekend. Playing in just 750 theaters, the best picture favorite is forecast for a holiday weekend take of $12.3 million, putting its total at an estimated $37 million.

“La La Land” passed “Hell or High Water” on Friday to become the highest-grossing limited/prestige release of 2016. As the movie — starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as a couple falling in love and helping each other realize their dreams — continues to rack up honors and expand into more theaters, it could easily follow the trajectory of “Silver Linings Playbook,” the rare Oscar contender that doubles as a box-office powerhouse.


glenn.whipp@latimes.com

Twitter: @glennwhipp

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