You may have noticed that last week we had neither a box office report or a Monday Morning Critic. The first was my fault; I was watching a Marvel Mystery Movie Marathon last Sunday and didn’t have the gumption to acknowledge that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped more money than expected in its second weekend of release and is now on pace to earn less than Man of Steel in theaters. I was having too much fun watching non-MCU movies that included a Spider-Man movie from 1977; the 1978 anime Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned (which was totally insane, yet is sadly only available on VHS); two Doctor Strange movies (including Full Moon Studios’ Doctor Mordrid); Howard the Duck and finally Punisher: War Zone. Whew.
Scott is taking a break from Monday Morning Critic as he gets ready for summer school. If summer school involved shepherding a Kickstarter project into production in San Francisco where a comic-book hero and villain are roomies in “Confessions of a Superhero.” Not to be confused with a 2007 documentary with the same title.
So where does that leave us? Ah, yes, this weekend at the box office.
It was a nail-biting finish as Melissa McCarthy’s new comedy, The Boss, dethrones Batman v Superman to finish atop the top 10. Only $45,000 separated first and second place but apparently more folks were ready to laugh than sit through the dour slog that was Zack Snyder’s interpretation of a superhero orphan fight. The good news for McCarthy is that this is her fifth movie in a row to open in wide release at $21 million or more. However, after her first two comedies in a starring role (Identity Thief and The Heat) opened in the range of $34 to $39 million, her last few didn’t crack $30 million openings. Either people or wising up to her brand of comedy pratfalls or there just wasn’t much interest in her latest feature.
Elsewhere, we had the first-person feature Hardcore Henry open up at No. 5 with $5 million in earnings. Disney’s Zootopia is performing bonkers with more than $850 million grossed worldwide. And with the arrival of a live-action Jungle Book and Captain America: Civil War in a few weeks, Disney will be like Scrooge McDuck, swimming in a vault full of gold coins.
In the battle of church-going fare, Miracles from Heaven in its fourth weekend outperformed the second-weekend run of God’s Not Dead 2 (Christian Boogaloo?). They were separated by $500k ($4.8M vs. $4.3M). The third Divgerent movie is a YA bust with $61.8 million after four weeks. Compare that to Paramount’s 10 Cloverfield Lane and $68 million.
Outside of the top ten, Warner Bros. expanded Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special to 493 locations where it made $1.15 million. Fox Searchlight opened the Jake Gyllenhaal starring Demolition on 854 screens where it earned $1.12 million. Drafthouse Films’ The Invitation was released in 10 venues and finished to the tune of $67,739. The Karyn Kusama thriller is also available on VOD.
Movies vying to for the #1 spot this weekend include The Jungle Book, Barbershop: The Next Cut, and Criminal. Look for Disney’s live-action version of the Rudyard Kipling novel to rocket to No. 1.
Full Top 10 rankings below.
01. The Boss – $23.48 Million
02. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – $23.43 Million ($296.6M)
03. Zootopia – $14.3 Million ($296M)
04. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 – $6.4 Million ($46.7M)
05. Hardcore Henry – $5 Million
06. Miracles from Heaven – $4.8 Million ($53.8M)
07. God’s Not Dead 2 – $4.3 Million ($14.1M)
08. The Divergent Series: Allegiant – $3.6 Million ($61.8M)
09. 10 Cloverfield Lane – $3 Million ($67.9M)
10. Eye in the Sky – $2.8 Million ($10.4M)
