Weekend Wrap Up
by Tim Briody
May 13, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
It’s a $61.8 million third weekend for Avengers: Infinity War. That’s just a 46% decline and gives it a running total of $547.8 million, as it becomes the eighth biggest film of all time domestically. Worldwide, it’s crushed Black Panther already and is the 5th biggest film of all time with over $1.6 billion already. This is just ridiculous. It does finally get a challenge next weekend in Deadpool 2, and then Solo the weekend after that, but Infinity War will clear $600 million next weekend, and $650 million at a bare minimum by the time we get through Memorial Day weekend. There’s scenarios alive where it does and doesn’t get $700 million (and beat Black Panther), but I’m leaning towards the latter at the moment. Black Panther benefited a great deal many weaker releases in the following two months after release, but Infinity War is likely to have bigger declines in the face of tentpole after tentpole. Still, it’s all Marvel and/or Disney all the time, especially over the next two weekends. And oh, by the way, this is just part one. Can’t wait to do this exact same thing next year.
Melissa McCarthy’s Life of the Party lands in second with $18.5 million. The good news here is that McCarthy has had a solidly consistent opening weekend record over the last 5-6 years since her breakout in Bridesmaids and Life of the Party continues that streak. The bad news is that Life of the Party is her lowest opening weekend in a lead role. Co-written with and directed by her husband Ben Falcone, the pair is actually responsible for her weaker offerings, most of which benefited from being the follow up to her previous hit (Tammy opened after The Heat, and The Boss was her follow up to Spy). McCarthy’s second tier films haven’t had the best legs, and Life of the Party will likely follow suit here, I think $50 million would be the best it could hope for.
Third goes to the weekend’s other opener, Breaking In. Starring Gabrielle Union, the action thriller was a surprise hit on Mother’s Day weekend with a $16.5 million weekend, on a budget of only $6 million. If you’re surprised by this, again you’re underestimating the audience that wants films starring largely black casts. Fine, Proud Mary opened to just $9.9 million in January but it was marketed poorly/not at all and also it was January. Add in a good concept here (Panic Room meets Die Hard is an excellent comparison) and you have a surprise hit. I don’t know how well it’ll hold over the next couple of weekends, but everything’s gravy for Universal after this weekend.
Overboard holds pretty well in its second weekend, down just 31% to $10.1 million. The gender swapped romantic comedy remake starring Anna Farris and Eugenio Derbez has $30.2 million in two weekends, all off just a $12 million budget and in only 2,000 theaters (expanding from 1,600 last weekend). Could the success here mean more comedy remakes? Derbez (Mexico’s biggest comedy star) may have found his niche to be a bigger star in America, whether he likes it or not.
In its sixth weekend, A Quiet Place drops just 18%, adding another $6.4 million on the weekend, giving it $169.5 million to date. The John Krasinski directed thriller is easily the best success story of the box office year, non-Marvel division.
I Feel Pretty takes sixth with $3.7 million and a decent $43.8 million after four weekends. The Amy Schumer comedy continues to hang in there, dropping only 27% from last weekend, and will pass the total box office of her previous film Snatched, after next weekend, on its way to $55 million.
The Rock’s Rampage earns $3.3 million in its fifth weekend, down 27% from last weekend and has $89.7 million to date. It’s a much bigger monster overseas, crossing $300 million internationally and giving it nearly $400 million worldwide. Expect a sequel announcement soon enough.
Tully earns $2.2 million in its second weekend, down 32% and giving it $6.9 million to date. The Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody collaboration (also behind the films Juno and Young Adult) is still kind of a disappointment but lack of new releases will keep in around for another weekend.
Black Panther gets a 13th weekend in the top ten, as it adds $1.9 million and has $696.1 million to date. There will probably be one last push to get it to $700 million, perhaps over Memorial Day weekend.
One last surprise for the weekend as RBG, a documentary about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and how she’s sort of become the “cool” one of the bunch (shocked, SHOCKED it’s not about Clarence Thomas) earned $1.1 million in just 180 theaters and has $2 million after two weekends. This is again the sort of stuff that happens when films get out of the way of the big guns.
The top 12 films this weekend earned $127.9 million, spot on to last year’s $127.1 million when the second weekend of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (vs. the 3rd weekend of Infinity War, remember) earned $65.2 million. Next weekend things get exciting again with the release of the Deadpool sequel, as well as other cannon fodder in the form of Show Dogs and Book Club, a film that simply would not exist had Fifty Shades of Grey never happened.