Weekend Box Office: ‘Infinity War’ Is The ‘Life Of The Party’ While Melissa McCarthy Slumps

New Line Cinema

Avengers: Infinity War easily held on to the top spot at the box office for the third weekend in a row. With another $65 million in the bank, Infinity War has now earned $551 million domestic. It’s keeping pace ahead of Black Panther but behind Star Wars: A Force Awakens as the second fastest movie to $500, although it falls behind A Force Awakens ($90 million), Avatar ($68 million) and Black Panther ($66 million) for the highest grossing third weekend. It will likely end its run around $650 million domestic, meaning that Black Panther is likely to be the top film through the summer (and likely the year) unless Solo or Deadpool overtake it (neither are expected to). However, after international receipts for Infinity War come in this weekend, it will cross the $1.4 billion mark and surpass Black Panther and Avengers: Age of Ultron in worldwide receipts after only three weekends, making it the 7th biggest film of all time, worldwide.

Meanwhile, Melissa McCarthy’s partnership with her husband, Ben Falcone, is increasingly producing less return on the investment. The latest, Life of the Party, which is directed and co-written by Falcone, opens its run with less than $20 million, short of the $21 million earned by Tammy and the $23 million earned by The Boss. An $18.2 million opening on a budget in the low $30 millions is not great.

However, it is worth noting that both of their previous efforts legged it out to $63 million (The Boss) and $84 million (Tammy), so Life of the Party may play well against relatively limited comedy competition until Tag arrives mid-June. Life of the Party is getting mixed reviews by critics (41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but better scores from audiences (B Cinemascore) than the two previous Falcone/McCarthy collaborations (C+). Falcone and McCarthy will reteam again for a Christmas 2019 release, Superintelligence, although McCarthy also has two more films out in 2018.

Gabrielle Union’s home-invasion film Breaking In counter-programmed its way to $14 million in its opening weekend, which is great for a film that only cost $6 million to produce. Reviews were not great (27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences have liked it, giving it a B+ CinemaScore, so it should earn enough to cross into the black, even after marketing costs are accounted for.

Universal

The rest of the week’s top ten were all holdovers. The biggest surprise here is Overboard, which added $10.1 million. Thanks to Mother’s Day audiences, the film dropped only 31 percent in its second weekend, and it now has a 10-day total of $31 million, which is respectable for movie that only cost $12 million to make. It should also do well internationally, especially in Mexico, where it opens this weekend and where Eugenio Derbez is a huge box-office star. (Update: Overboard opened with $10.5 million in Mexico, the second highest opening weekend gross in Mexico after the opening of Avengers this year and the highest grossing opening weekend ever for an Eugenio Derbez movie).

A Quiet Place is hanging in there, too, adding $6.6 million in its sixth week to bring its total to $169 million (the $17 million film has now earned over $260 million worldwide).

Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty gained another $3.5 million to bring its four-week total to $43 million, sleeping its way toward an OK showing on a $32 million budget (Schumer’s previous effort, Snatched, ended its run at $45 million). In week 5, Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage adds $3.1 million to bring its total to just short of $90 million (and $380 million worldwide). In its second week of release, Tully suffered only a 28 percent loss, but it still only earned $2.35 million to bring its 10-day total to a disappointing $7 million.

With an additional $2.1 million, Black Panther is nearly at the $700 million mark with $696 million. Hopefully, it crosses that barrier next weekend because there’s not a lot of time left in theaters, as the film is now available for home viewing. Finally, Blockers closes out the top 10 with $1 million. It’s earned $58 million after six weeks.

Next week should see some more excitement at the box office as the post Infinity War summer season finally gets going with the release of Deadpool (and Solo the weekend after that). Show Dogs and Book Club also open wide in theaters.

Source: Deadline, BoxOfficeMojo

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