Weekend Box Office (March 15 - 17, 2019)
THIS WEEKEND Topping the box office with ease in its second weekend of play was the comic book smash Captain Marvel which grossed an estimated $69.3M making more than the rest of the top ten combined. Disney has watched its cume soar to a stellar $266.2M and is on track to join the $400M club. The 55% sophomore drop was in line with many other super hero films so it is playing out in normal fashion for the genre. Overseas markets contributed much more again with a stunning $119.7M this weekend lifting the overseas total to $494M and the global tally to $760.2M. Breaking the billion dollar mark is set and a finish of about $1.1 billion might be possible.
Paramount opened its new animated comedy Wonder Park in second place and gathered up an estimated $16M in ticket sales from families. The PG-rated pic averaged a decent $4,169 from 3,838 sites and attracted a respectable crowd despite earning negative reviews. The top ten still has a handful of titles appealing to kids, including the Carol Danvers juggernaut, so competition was heavy. The studio hopes for a nice long spring run as weather gets better for more kid outings.
The new teen romance Five Feet Apart got off to a fine start in third place grossing an estimated $13.2M from 2,803 sites for a good $4,691 average. Reviews were not too great for the PG-13 film but the target audience of young females came out in respectable numbers. The drama from CBS Films and Lionsgate cost only $7M to produce and should end up being a nice little moneymaker. It's an impressive debut given that teens have shifted over to Netflix for so much of their entertainment outside of well-established movie brands.
The DreamWorks Animation sequel How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World followed with an estimated $9.4M declining by 36% which was not bad considering the arrival of a competing toon. Universal has raised the domestic total to $135.7M while the global tally rose to an impressive $466.5M. Falling 35% in its third weekend was Lionsgate's A Madea Family Funeral with an estimated $8.1M for a cume of $59.1M.
The Spanish-language comedy sequel No Manches Frida 2 enjoyed a solid debut with an estimated $3.9M from 472 theaters for a strong $8,250 average which was easily second best in the top ten behind only Captain Marvel. The weekend launch was on par with the $3.7M opening weekend of its 2016 predecessor, though that film had a better $10,155 average.
The alien invasion thriller Captive State was met with yawns opening poorly to an estimated $3.2M from 2,548 locations for a dismal $1,241 average. The PG-13 entry from Focus earned mixed reviews and a lousy C- grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
Warner Bros. finally crossed the century mark with The LEGO Movie 2 which grossed an estimated $2.1M, down 45%, for a $101.3M cume. The first LEGO Movie had made more than twice as much as this same point in its run sitting at $236.9M. Down 41% in its fifth round was Alita: Battle Angel with an estimated $1.9M pushing the domestic total to $81.8M. Fox has banked an impressive $394M worldwide to date. Best Picture champ Green Book collected an estimated $1.3M, off 49%, giving Universal $82.6M to date.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $128.3M which was up 8% from last year when Black Panther held onto the number one spot for a fifth time with $26.7M; but down 49% from 2017 when Beauty and the Beast opened on top with a March record $174.8M.
Get earlier box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com on Twitter.
Watch the trailer for Dark Phoenix.
This column is updated three times each week: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday (post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of the author.
Last Updated: March 17, 2019 at 2:40PM ET
©1997 - 2019 Box Office Guru