Ava Duvernay’s A Wrinkle In Time opened this weekend with a softer than anticipated $33 million. The film, which has been heavily hyped for months, may have been set back by mixed reviews (42 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but it should be able to rebound somewhat with an A- Cinemascore among those 25 and under (a B overall). The 25 and under demo is important here because A Wrinkle in Time is geared toward younger kids and should be able to capitalize on spring-break week in much of the country and the upcoming Easter holiday, in addition to the fact that a lot of theaters will be getting in kids by the school-bus loads in the coming weeks (my son, in fact, is seeing it with his school tomorrow).
On a $103 million budget, the opening of A Wrinkle In Time is somewhat disappointing, but Disney can’t be that bummed about it, because it got beaten by another one of their properties, Black Panther, which continues to dominate the box office, putting up another $41 million to bring its total to $562 million. It has also officially crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide. What records has it broken in its fourth-frame? It’s now the biggest non-sequel superhero movie of all time; it’s the second biggest superhero movie ever and is catching up to The Avengers $623 million. It also has the third-best fourth weekend ever behind only Avatar and A Force Awakens. Disney staked out the top two spots this weekend with a combined $74 million, so it’s not going to be crying over the opening of A Wrinkle In Time.
Meanwhile, in at number three is the sort-of sequel to the horror film The Strangers, Strangers: Prey at Night. It did OK, opening with $10 million, or about half of the original movie’s $20 million opening. It fared much better than the other two movies that opened this weekend. Hurricane Heist could not capitalize on moviegoers coming out to watch it ironically despite being the Mad Max: Fury Road of alliterative, weather-themed heist movies. It opened at number 9 with only around $3 million. Meanwhile, Gringo, starring David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton, and Thandie Newton bombed this weekend despite that stellar cast, opening outside of the top 10 with a lowly $2.6 million.
The rest of this weekend’s entries were all holdovers. At number four, Jennifer Lawrence’s Red Sparrow collected $8 million to bring its ten-day total to a disappointing $31 million. Game Night in its third weekend made $7.8 million and now it has earned a modest $45 million. Peter Rabbit continues to hang in there with $6.8 million and is now making a run at $100 million; it sits at $93 million at the moment. In its second weekend, Death Wish added $6.6 million to bring its total to $23 million, and Annihilation rings in $3.15 million to bring its three-week total to $26 million.
Next weekend, another big film, Tomb Raider, will make a run at Black Panther. I Can Only Imagine, Love, Simon, and 7 Days in Entebbe will open as well.
