Articles

April 4, 2014
 

THURSDAY NIGHT BOX OFFICE: “Captain America” To the Rescue

 

The US box office has started humming for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney), which brought in $10.2M in shows that began at 8PM last night.  That’s considerably better than the $7.1M that Thor: The Dark World made in its Thursday night shows last November, and also better than the $9M for Man of Steel (although the latter waited until midnight to begin its official run, with Thursday evening shows only as part of a Walmart promo offer).  Reflecting the post-Avengers bump that the mega-franchise has given to its component parts, Winter Soldier‘s Thursday was 2.5x the Thursday night for 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger.  Captain isn’t in a league with Iron Man 3‘s $15.6M, let alone The Avengers‘ $18.7M, but it wasn’t expected to reach that tier.

Here are the Friday (including Thursday night) and weekend numbers that Winter Soldier will be measured against:

Captain America: the First Avenger:  $25.7M Friday/$65.1M weekend

Thor: The Dark World:  $31.9M Friday/$85.7M weekend

Man of Steel:  $56.1M Friday (includes $12.1M Walmart promotion)/$128.7M weekend

Iron Man 3:  $68.9M Friday/$174.1M weekend

The Avengers:  $80.8M Friday/$207.4M weekend

Note:  The Amazing Spider-Man opened on a Tuesday, so its weekend dynamic isn’t comparable to the above titles.

 



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."