In its second weekend, Captain Marvel, whose title character is poised to replace Tony Stark as the leader of the MCU, soared past the $250 million mark, reaching around $266 million after 10 days at the box office with an impressive $69 million second weekend. It’s the second best second weekend for a March release ever, behind only the $90 million earned by Beauty and the Beast. It’s tracking slightly ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and slightly behind Captain America: Civil War, meaning if it continues on its current trajectory, it’ll earn about $400 million stateside, good for the seventh best entry into the MCU. In just 10 days, it’s also surpassed the entire totals of Amazing Spider-Man 2 , Thor: The Dark World, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Doctor Strange. Worldwide, Captain Marvel is also expected to cross the $700 million mark and become globally the biggest grossing film of the year, so far.
Not bad, right? One interesting note about the second weekend totals is that, though even with Captain Marvel, more men than women have been turning out, the percentage of women seeing the movie in the second weekend grew to 47 percent, compared to 42 percent in its opening weekend.
Captain Marvel was obviously the big story this weekend (as it was last weekend), but there were three new wide releases, as well as a Spanish-language film that performed very well in less than 500 theaters. The animated film Wonder Park took second place with around $16 million. The Paramount production has been brewing since 2014, although it has been without a director since January 2018, after Dylan Brown was fired for sexual misconduct. Reviews for the film have been dreadful (30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), and what’s even more remarkable is that the marketing for the film never seems to mention that it’s a cancer movie about a young girl battling depression while her Mom is sick. It’d probably be a good idea to mention that in the trailers before parents decide to take their small children. In any respect, it looks like Paramount will eventually have to take a write down on the $100 million pic.
The Cole Sprouse teen romance Five Feet Apart — about two teens with cystic fibrosis who fall in love but must maintain their distance to avoid infecting each other — took the third spot, earning around $13.1 million. Reviews for the film have been mixed (56 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), although the target audience loves it (it has an A+ Cinemascore from those under 18).
Holdovers How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and A Madea Family Funeral occupy the fourth and fifth positions this weekend, with $9.3 million ($133 million) and $8 million ($58 million), respectively. The third Dragon movie is falling behind its predecessors stateside, but it’s already earned well over $300 million overseas, so the $129 million budgeted film is already in the red. Madea, likewise, is already the fifth highest grossing film of the series and has an outside shot of becoming the second highest, if it can best the $73 million of Boo! A Madea Halloween.
No Manches Frida 2 took the sixth spot with $$3.89 million in fewer than 500 screens, and moviegoers who have never heard of that film are not alone. The sequel does not yet even have its own Wikipedia page, although the original entry also earned a surprising $3.6 million over Labor Day weekend in 2016. The film doesn’t have an official Rotten Tomatoes score yet, either, because only three critics have reviewed it. No Manches Frida 2 nevertheless performed better than Captive State, which was released into over 5 times the theaters this weekend and only earned $3.2 million. Reviews for the Rupert Wyatt alien invasion film were not good (46 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but its C- Cinemascore was even worse. Even with a relatively small budget of $25 million, this one is a box-office bomb for Focus pictures.
Holdovers occupied the last three positions. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part finally crossed the $100 million mark by earning $2.5 million in its sixth week (the original did so in 9 days), while it has only earned $167 million globally. It has been a quiet bomb for Warner Brothers that most likely puts the LEGO franchise in danger. Alita: Battle Angel took the 9th spot with $1.9 million, and while it has only earned $81 million stateside, it has earned a more impressive $300 million overseas. Green Book closes out the top ten, hanging on for one more week and earning $1.3 million in its 18th week, accumulating $82 million to date and $192 million worldwide.
Next weekend sees the release of Us, Jordan Peele’s follow up to Get Out. I saw it last weekend at SXSW, and it is as terrifying as the trailers suggest. It’s not likely to put up Get Out numbers, but it should perform very well for Universal.
Source: Box Office Mojo, Deadline
