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March 16, 2019
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Captain Marvel” Unchallenged, “Wonder Park” & “Five Feet Apart” OK, “Captive State” DOA

 

The other studios didn’t try very hard to compete with the second weekend of CAPTAIN MARVEL (Marvel/Disney), and the blockbuster will have no trouble repeating as #1 this week.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, the Friday-to-Friday drop was 70% (to $18.8M), which sounds like a lot, but is fairly standard for the genre.  It’s the same drop as Avengers: Infinity War, and better than the 75% for Avengers: Age of Ultron and the 74% for Captain America: Civil War (let alone the 80% for Suicide Squad and 82% for Batman v Superman), although not as strong as the 62% for Black Panther or the 59% for Wonder Woman.  The drop should settle to around 55% for the weekend, putting it at $70M, which would be the #7 Marvel 2nd weekend, and it’s still on track for a $400M US total.

WONDER PARK (Nickelodeon/Paramount) aimed for the very young audience as counterprogramming, and its $5.6M Friday should bring it to $17M for the weekend, a mediocre result considering that it carries a reported $200M in production and worldwide marketing costs.  It faces direct competition from Dumbo in 2 weeks, and will need to wildly overperform internationally to have any chance of breaking even.

FIVE FEET APART (CBS/Lionsgate) was a much less expensive proposition, with perhaps $60M in total costs, so its $5.2M Friday and likely $13M weekend give it a fighting chance if it can generate some word of mouth.

CAPTIVE STATE (Focus/Universal) looks like a total loss, with a $1.3M Friday that probably won’t get it  much higher than $3M for the weekend.

The Spanish-language NO MANCHES FRIDA 2 (Pantelion/Lionsgate) opened slightly under wide release, in 472 theatres, with a solid $1.3M on Friday.  That’s on par with the $1.1M opening day for the first No Manches Frida, which launched a bit more narrowly at 362 theatres.  The Latinx audience tends to be extremely strong on Sundays (the first film climbed 13% on its 3rd day of release), so the weekend could hit $4M.  The first film never went wider than 465 theatres, with an $11.5M US total, and we’ll see if the plans this time are more ambitious.

Among non-Marvel holdovers, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) led the way, down just 25% from last Friday to $2.5M, for an $11M weekend.  It should reach $160M in the US.

A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL (Lionsgate) held well for that franchise, with a Friday-to-Friday drop of 35% to $2.1M, putting it on track for a $7.5M weekend and a US total possibly as high as $70M+, which would put it in the top 3 of the franchise.

THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART (Warners Animation) is running out of gas but holding well with a 28% drop from last Friday to $600K, for a $2.5M weekend and a US total that should pass $105M, still down a sharp 60% from the first Lego Movie.

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (20th) dropped 42% from last Friday to $500K, for a $1.7M weekend and a US total that will stall around $85M.  It’s earned almost 80% of its worldwide total overseas.

FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (Annapurna/MGM) didn’t find its audience, down 42% from last Friday to $300K, on its way to a $1.3M weekend and a US total that probably won’t even get to $25M.

 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."