weekend box office captain marvel

Internet trolls tried their damnedest to sink Marvel Studio’s first solo female film ‘Captain Marvel’, which they accused of being part of an SJW conspiracy.  They went from bombing Rotten Tomatoes with nasty reviews a month before the film had even been released, to doing the same on IMDB after RT disabled their attacks, to trying to organize a protest by having Marvel/Disney haters go see ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ instead.  (That last one makes no sense, because it is also a female-fronted action movie about the lower class taking down the establishment.  Also, it’s now a Disney movie.  Dumbasses.)  But Marvel fans weren’t swayed and turned out in droves.  In fact, 61% of the audience was male (typical for a superhero movie) and 47% of the audience was Caucasian.

‘Captain Marvel’ took in $153 million on its opening weekend, making it the third-best March opening ever, trailing behind ‘Beauty & the Beast’ and ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’.  Audiences gave it an A CinemaScore, and 4 out of 5 stars through PostTrak.  Based on professional reviews, it ranks at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In terms of superhero movies, according to Deadline, ‘Captain Marvel’s three-day opening is higher than those of “the first two ‘Iron Man’ films, ‘The Incredible Hulk’, the first two ‘Captain America’ films, all three ‘Thor’ films, ‘Doctor Strange’, both ‘Ant-Man’ films, both ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ films, as well as all ‘Spider-Man’ films, ‘Venom’, ‘Suicide Squad’, ‘Man of Steel’, ‘Justice League’, ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘Aquaman’, both ‘Deadpools’ and all ‘X-Men’ films.  Of course, in the long run, some of those pictures went on to be massive hits, while others are considered disappointments.  So while ‘Captain Marvel’ had a killer opening, the next few weeks will determine how big a success it winds up being.

‘Captain Marvel’s international opening is estimated at $302M, bringing its worldwide first-weekend total to $455M.  It was only projected to open in the $200M range overseas, so it vastly outpaced tracking.  This is the sixth highest global opening of all time, edging out ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, but keep in mind, the ‘Star Wars’ movies make next-to-nothing in China, the world’s second-largest movie audience, and one that played a big part in ‘Captain Marvel’s success.

However, this does mean that ‘Captain Marvel’ now clocks in as the highest grossing movie of 2019 so far.

The gulf between the #1 and #2 movies was nearly $140M, so nearly everyone that went to the movies this weekend, was there to see ‘Captain Marvel’.  To really put things into perspective, the #2 movie was ‘How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’, which was in its third week.  In this one weekend, ‘CaptainMarvel’ made more than that movie has total.

Check out the chart below:

TOP FIVE:

  1. Captain Marvel (Disney) – $153M
  2. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Dreamworks Animation/Universal) – $14.7M
  3. Madea’s Family Funeral (Lionsgate) – $12M
  4. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (Warner Brothers) – $3.8M
  5. Alita: Battle Angel (20th Century Fox) – $3.2M

Next weekend, counter-programming is the name of the game.  Even though the Marvel movies are pretty much all-ages, for parents with younger kids, there is Nickelodeon’s ‘Wonder Park’.  For teen girls, there is ‘Five Feet Apart’, starring ‘Riverdale’ heartthrob Cole Sprouse.

Neither will take down ‘Captain Marvel’, but should nudge a few of the lower holdovers out of the Top Five.  Check back to see how things go!