Each week on Atom Insider, we break down the box office numbers for all of the biggest films opening in theaters. This week saw the widest release ever for just one film, which translated into even more broken records for Marvel’s massive crossover event.
This Week’s Top Earner – ‘Avengers: Endgame’
We probably sound like a broken record, too, at this point. I’ve been keeping up with Avengers: Endgame‘s monumental march to $1 billion (and now $2 billion) and all its records broken since Friday on a separate countdown, but the earnings are clear. In just a few days, Marvel’s 22nd film in its cinematic universe opened with a resounding $1.2 billion worldwide. That’s the biggest international opening release ever, with China also seeing the film break its record by collecting over $330 million.
In the U.S., Endgame broke the domestic record for opening weekends with $356 million. That’s over $100 million more than Infinity War made just last year. Depending on how the summer plays out for other blockbuster releases, Endgame stands a decent chance of surpassing Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the highest-grossing film ever domestically at over $936 million. So far, it’s made a third of that huge number in a snap.
Second Place – ‘Captain Marvel’
Every other film in the Top 10 this week dropped in terms of box office, but Captain Marvel fell the least, likely thanks to its MCU connection and sold out Endgame screenings. In its eighth week at the box office, the Brie Larson superhero origin story actually rose another two spots to #2 with $8 million domestically. It’s now ranked the #2 film in the alien invasion genre (domestically) behind The Avengers, though it will soon drop back to #3 once Avengers: Endgame climbs to the top.
And Third – ‘The Curse Of La Llorona’
The Blumhouse horror from Warner Bros. dropped two spots to #3, making just $7.5 million domestically. That’s a harsh 71% drop since The Curse of La Llorona debuted last week, especially considering it’s still in over 3,300 theaters. No reason to weep. The jump-scare Conjuring off-shoot has already made $86 million worldwide off of a reported budget of $9 million.
Rounding Out The Rest Of The Box Office
At #4, Breakthrough (Fox) gained nearly 100 theaters in its second week, but it still fell 44% with $6.3 million domestically. Thoughts and prayers. Shazam! (Warner Bros.) dropped three spots to #5 with $5.5 million, a 66.5% drop compared to last week. And Little is now at #6, grossing $3.4 million in its third week.
Dumbo (Disney) predictably dropped one spot to #7 with $3.2 million after losing over 800 theaters in its fifth week. Pet Sematary (Paramount) dropped one spot to #8 with just $1.2 million domestically after a month at the box office. It will likely finish its run as a modest horror hit, but not a breakout success by any means.
Us (Universal) fell one spot to #9 with $1.1 million domestically. After six weeks at the box office, it looks like Jordan Peele’s latest horror hit will land somewhere between $250-260 million worldwide or more. Last, at #10, is Penguins (Disneynature), which made a little over $1 million in its second week, enough to sneak into the Top 10 despite debuting at #12 last week.
And They’re Out
Because Penguins rose up the charts, two films fell off the Top 10. First was Missing Link (United Artists/LAIKA), which fell two spots to #11 in just its third week with $950 thousand. We still don’t know the stop-motion animated film’s reported budget, but it’s likely well above its domestic total of just $15.4 million.
Second was Hellboy (Lionsgate), which fell four spots to #14 in its third week, barely pulling in $350 thousand. Bloody hell. Making just over $21.5 million worldwide off of a reported budget of $50 million (not counting marketing expenses), it looks like Hellboy will go down as one of the year’s biggest flops.
Check back with Atom Insider later this week as we preview all the new releases hitting theaters this Friday.
