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'Coco,' a charmer from the Land of the Dead, lives on

The colorful Pixar movie "Coco", which tells the story of Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez, first on the left), a young Mexican who longs to be a musician and stumbles into the Land of the Dead to unravel a surprising family secret, took $18.5 million

Animated comedy "Coco" showed serious staying power holding on to top spot at the North American box office for its third weekend running, industry monitor Exhibitor Relations reported Monday. The colorful Pixar movie, which tells the story of Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), a young Mexican who longs to be a musician and stumbles into the Land of the Dead to unravel a surprising family secret, took $18.5 million. Rewarded with a Golden Globe nomination on Monday, "Coco" has taken $135.7 million since its release over the long Thanksgiving weekend, and is already the top-grossing film ever in Mexico. It is one of just four films to lead the North American box office for three weekends in a row this year, according to entertainment industry weekly Variety. But that is expected to change with the much-anticipated release next week of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," predicted to net up to $220 million in its opening weekend. Second on North American screens this weekend was "Justice League," taking in $9.7 million, for a four-week total of $212 million. The Warner Bros. movie features Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman and Jason Momoa as Aquaman, plus Ciaran Hinds as a supervillain. Third was Lionsgate's feel-good film "Wonder," which netted $8.4 million. The movie, starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay, tells the story of a determined fifth-grade boy with a facial deformity who must deal with rudeness and bullying by schoolmates. Shooting up to fourth place was "The Disaster Artist," distributed by A24, a comedy-drama directed by James Franco about the making of 2003 cult movie "The Room," reputedly one of the worst films ever. Starring Franco, Seth Rogen and Alison Brie, "The Disaster Artist" took in $6.4 million for the weekend. In fifth was "Thor: Ragnarok," featuring the self-effacing humor of Chris Hemsworth as the powerful Norse god and Cate Blanchett as death goddess Hela. The Disney film netted $6.3 million, bumping up its six-week total to $301 million. Rounding out the list were: "Daddy's Home 2" ($5.9 million) "Murder on the Orient Express" ($5.2 million) "The Star" ($3.7 million) "Lady Bird" ($3.5 million) "Just Getting Started" ($3.2 million)