Captain America: Civil War opens next weekend, and none of this weekend’s opening acts made much of a dent. Disney’s The Jungle Book was on top for the third weekend in a row, dropping only 31% and grossing another $42.439 million domestic (bringing it to $252 million worldwide). Keanu was the top new release with $9.35 million domestic, followed by Mother’s Day with $8.3 million.
If those seem like paltry numbers, they kind of are, though Keanu only cost $15 million to make and will probably end up earning out. Mother’s Day cost $10 million more than that, $25 million, so it’s not a complete disaster, but in the context of other holiday-themed rom-coms directed by Garry Marshall, it seems pretty clear that audience enthusiasm is waning. Valentine’s Day opened with $56.2 million in 2010 on the way to $216 million worldwide, followed by New Year’s Eve, which debuted with $13 million on the way to $142 million worldwide. Mother’s Day looks like it will be lucky to break even, which seems like a miracle considering how bad everyone said it was. And this was a movie that starred Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, and Kate Hudson. Needed more llama reaction shots, maybe? Or more Timothy Olyphant staring at donuts.
In terms of Cinemascore, audiences actually liked Mother’s Day (B+) slightly more than Keanu (B) – which I didn’t think was that great either, and I love Key and Peele. Forbes notes that Keanu received an A- from under 25 year olds and an A+ from under 18 year olds, for whatever that’s worth (audience was 71% over 25). Valuable research for the next, hopefully better, Key and Peele vehicle, perhaps.
The other wide release of the weekend, Ratchet & Clank, finished way back in seventh, with $4.8 million. At 19% recommended on RottenTomatoes and a B Cinemascore, we probably won’t be hearing much about it anymore.
Green Room expanded to 470 theaters this weekend, ending up with a not-especially-noteworthy $960,000, or $2,043 per theater. In terms of smaller releases, that was better than Papa: Hemingway in Cuba ($1,511 per theater) but worse than The Man Who Knew Infinity (Dev Patel plays a math prodigy), which $88K from six theaters, or $14,689 per theater. Anyway, there’s still plenty of time to see Green Room, which you should.
Next week brings us Captain America: Civil War (I hear they brought back sexy jiu-jitsu lady and Hang Glider Dave!). And…. pretty much nothing else. Everyone was scared of Marvel. Which seems like a bit of a missed opportunity for counter programming. If your mom goes to the movies, will she really be seeing Captain America? I doubt it. You can insert your own mom joke here, by the way.
| Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
| 1 | The Jungle Book | $42,439,000 (-31.0) | $10,502 | $252,095,000 |
| 2 | The Huntsman: Winter’s War | $9,390,000 (-51.7) | $2,470 | $33,986,000 |
| 3 | Keanu | $9,350,000 | $3,518 | $9,350,000 |
| 4 | Mother’s Day | $8,302,000 | $2,736 | $8,302,000 |
| 5 | Barbershop: The Next Cut | $6,125,000 (-41.8) |
$2,652 | $44,705,000 |
| 6 | Zootopia | $5,006,000 (-23.9) | $2,013 | $323,518,000 |
| 7 | Ratchet and Clank | $4,823,000 | $1,668 | $4,823,000 |
| 8 | The Boss | $4,250,000 (-31.8) | $1,505 | $56,111,000 |
| 9 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | $3,810,000 (-30.8) | $1,635 | $325,132,000 |
| 10 | Criminal | $1,325,000 (-57.5) | $840 | $13,476,000 |
[Chart via ScreenCrush]