It was another big weekend for Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame as it continued to Hulk-smash the competition in its quest to become the new all-time global box office champ. Three new films –Long Shot, Uglydolls and The Intruder– entered the marketplace on Friday, but were all met with a collective shrug from the public.
Endgame’s continued success helped propel the top ten up a healthy 21% over one year ago at this time when Avengers: Infinity War led the box office with $114.7 million in its second weekend of release.
In its second round, Avengers: Endgame experienced the normal decrease associated with a big-ticket event flick. The concluding chapter of the Infinity Stones saga eased 59% on 4,662 screens to score a estimated $145.8 million. That weekend haul helped push Endgame’s North American total up to a Marvel-ous $619.7 million after only ten days.
In comparison to the second weekends of other recent Marvel openings, Endgame’s drop in business was a bit steeper than the 55% experienced by Infinity War but right in line with the 59% experienced by 2016’s Captain America: Civil War and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
While Endgame set a new record for a film crossing the $600 million mark in record time, it did miss breaking the record for biggest second weekend gross. Until the final totals are reported on Monday –remember, Disney underestimated Endgame’s domestic debut by a whopping seven million dollars-,that record remains held by the $149.2 million brought in by 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
In terms of all time domestic earners, Endgame now sits at number nine right between fellow Disney flicks Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Incredibles 2. Endgame will pass The Last Jedi on Monday, zip past Avengers: Infinity War and possibly Black Panther by next Sunday and push Avatar down to third place in a few weeks.
On the international front, Endgame added another $282.2 million this weekend. That helped bring Thanos’ international earnings up to a head-spinning $1.569 billion after only a week and a half. Of that amount, China has contributed $575 million. Other major markets for Endgame were the United Kingdom with $90 million, South Korea with $82 million, Mexico with $61 million and Brazil with $56 million. Russia – the final market to open the film this past Monday- has contributed $33 million so far.
With $2.18 billion overall in the bank, Avengers: Endgame has become only the fifth film ever to break the two billion dollar milestone. It has also surpassed Titanic this weekend to become the second-biggest global box office hit of all time (pre-inflation, of course). Endgame should surpass Avatar to become the new all time king of the global box office by the end of this month.
Way, way, way down in second place was the first of three new arrivals, the Screen Gems urban thriller The Intruder with an estimated $11 million from 2,222 theaters. Reviews were downright terrifying for the low-budget Meghan Good/Dennis Quaid offering. The Intruder scored a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 38/100 on Metacritic. Surprisingly, CinemaScore did not provide a grade from ticket buyers for the film Screen Gems was encouraging the audience to yell back at. I’m guessing they were too busy yelling things along the lines of “THIS SUCKS!” and “THIS IS WORSE THAN ‘JAWS 3-D’, DENNIS!” to properly grade it.
One film that did receive solid reviews but failed to bring in an audience was Lionsgate’s Long Shot, which landed in third place with $10 million from 3,230 theaters. The Seth Rogen/Charlize Theron romantic comedy scored a solid 83% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 67/100 on Metacritic, but only merited an okay “B” from ticket buyers on CinemaScore.
Opening in fourth place with a downright ugly $8.5 million from 3,652 theaters was STX’s Uglydolls. Critics slammed the animated film featuring the vocal talents of Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae, and Nick Jonas. They gave the $45 million production a 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 39/100 on Metacritic.Uglydolls fared somewhat better with those who paid to see the film this weekend. They gave the cartoon a “B+” on CinemaScore.
Rounding out the top five was Disney/Marvel’s Captain Marvel with an estimated $4.27 million from 2,243 screens. Down 49% in its ninth weekend of release, Captain Marvel has earned $420.7 million domestically and an additional $699.3 million overseas.
- Breakthrough (Fox) $3.9 million (-42%); $33.2 million
- The Curse of La Llorona (Warner) $3.5 million (-56%); $48 million
- Shazam! (2019) (Warner) $2.4 million (-56%); $135 million
- Little (Universal) $1.47 million (-57%); $38.5 million
- Dumbo (2019) (Disney) $1.4 million (-59%); $109.7 million
Next weekend sees the arrival of Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, The Hustle and Poms. The heavily marketed Detective Pikachu should open strongly, but not strong enough to unseat Endgame from the top spot.
