Another weekend, another superhero film in the number one spot.
The highly anticipated sequel Deadpool 2 opened to sizable numbers this weekend at the North America box office, even if it fell short of the first film’s record-setting start. The Ryan Reynolds flick pushed three-week champ Avengers: Infinity War down to second place while leaving fellow new arrivals Book Club and Show Dogs in the dust.
Thanks to Deadpool 2‘s opening, the box office surged 64% over last year at this time when Alien: Covenant began its brief box office run with $36 million.
For its first three days on 4,349 screens, the Merc With a Mouth walked away with an estimated $125 million in ticket sales. The opening for the $110 million Fox/Marvel production was slightly below the $132.4 million taken in by the 2016 original, but that film had the benefit of opening over a long holiday weekend. The start forDeadpool 2 was the second-biggest ever for an R-rated film, just slightly ahead of the $123 million scored last September by Warner’s IT.
The daily breakdown for Deadpool 2 was $53.3 million on Friday –which included $18.6 million earned from Thursday previews-, $40.5 million on Saturday and an estimated $31.2 million for Sunday. IMAX venues accounted for roughly $11.2 million of the film’s weekend gross.
Reviews were solid for the second chapter of the R-rated superhero comedy series, this time directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde). Deadpool 2 scored an 84% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and a 66/100 on Metacritic. Ticket buyers gave the film an “A” on CinemaScore.
Overseas, Deadpool 2 shot up an estimated $176 million this weekend. Top markets for DP2 were the United Kingdom ($18 million), South Korea ($17 million), Russia ($11.8 million), Australia ($11.7 million) and Mexico ($10 million). The foreign debut for Deadpool 2 is the biggest international opening ever for a Fox film.
After three weeks of owning the box office, Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War abdicated the throne to Deadpool and Cable. The Thanos blockbuster dropped 54% in its fourth round on 4,002 screens to add an estimated $28.7 million. After one month, the new domestic total for Infinity War is $595 million. It should pass the $600 million mark on Tuesday en route to a final haul near the $650 million mark. Overseas, Infinity War has earned a spectacular $1.22 billion so far, of which $302 million has come from China alone.
This weekend’s counterprogramming came in the form of Paramount’s comedy Book Club, which landed in third place with an okay $12.5 million from 2,781 screens. The female-led feature headlining Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen was bestowed with mixed reviews from critics, which may have knocked its box office down a few pegs. Book Club scored a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 53/100 from Metacritic while receiving a more encouraging “A-“ from ticket buyers on CinemaScore.
Rounding out the top five were last week’s counterprogramming efforts, Life of the Party and Breaking In. While both received a nice boost in business on Mother’s Day one week ago, neither carried that good fortune over to this weekend.
Life of the Party crashed 57% less gatherings in its second round on 3,656 theaters where it made an estimated $7.7 million. After ten days, the Melissa McCarthy comedy has scored a moderate $31 million. A final tally near $45 million is possible.
Faring worse was Universal’s Breaking In, whichdropped a steep 63% in its second session on 2,537 screens. The Gabrielle Union thriller earned $6.5 million for the weekend, which brought its overall total up to $29 million. Breaking In should finish with an estimated $40 million in ticket sales.
- Show Dogs (GR) $6 million
I honestly thought this was a sequel to 2002’s Snow Dogs. Not that that would make the existence of this dud any less painful.
- Overboard (Lionsgate/MGM) $4.7 million (-53%); $37 million
- A Quiet Place (Paramount) $4 million (-41%); $176.2 million
- Rampage (Warner/New Line) $1.5 million (-57%); $92.3 million
- RBG (Magnolia) $1.2 million (+8%); $3.8 million
Making plenty of noise in limited release this weekend was the 50thAnniversary reissue of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. The roadshow presentation of unrestored 70mm film prints scored a great $200,000 from just four theaters. These prints will be making their way around the country this summer.
Thursday night sees the arrival of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is expected to dominate the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
