Weekend Box Office (3/15-3/17): 'Captain Marvel' Holds Strong At #1

Other studios steered clear of ‘Captain Marvel’s second weekend, allowing the Marvel flick to reign, earning an additional $69.3 million. Females turned out in higher numbers, making up 47% of the audience, versus 42% during opening weekend. Females under 25 made up 27%, versus last week’s 19%. ‘Captain Marvel’s domestic total is now $266.2M, and it has crossed the $600M mark worldwide. Exiting audience scores remain high with four out of five stars and 68% definite recommend.

In the week after the film’s opening, social media activity increased with 113M new followers, and 44M more Youtube views. According to social media monitoring service Relish Mix:

“The movie has also benefited from 5.8M new Facebook views across 18 new clips (not including the smart inclusion of the new Endgame trailer). And that’s worth noting – it is nearly impossible to discuss Captain Marvel without also talking about how the character will fit in next month’s Avengers Endgame finale to this Phase of the MCU. Now that Marvel is out, theories and discussions abound even more than they were prior to open.

“Conversation remains super-mixed as superfans of the movie are on a high – and they’re making plans to go see it again. However, there are Marvel Fans who chime in with, ‘I liked it, it was good, but not my favorite Marvel film…’ In other words, the brand is so strong that moviegoers who are even kind of on the fence likely turned out to see it because they’ve always had fun at Marvel movies. This result bodes very well for future Marvel films, which may show middle-of-the-road social activity, but are benefiting from the brand recognition alone.”

The only movies that attempted to enter the fray were counter-programming aimed at those that have already seen ‘Captain Marvel’, older males, teenage girls, and little kids.

At #2, Paramount’s ‘Wonder Park’ has been roasted by critics, with a 30% Rotten Tomatoes score. Audiences gave it a respectable B+, via CinemaScore. It’s $16M is lower than earlier predictions that it would open to $20M, but is still not too bad. This film underwent huge issues behind the scenes, including the termination of director Dylan Brown for sexual misconduct last January.

One animator at a rival studio commented, “It just seems that all the good parts of the movie are in the trailer.”

For slightly older females, there was CBS Films/Lionsgate’s teen love story ‘Five Feet Apart’, starring ‘Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse. This picture was only projected to open with $10M, but did $13.1M, taking the #3 spot. That’s better than similar recent teen romances, ‘Everything, Everything’ ($11.7), ‘Love, Simon’ ($11.8), ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ ($4.8) and ‘The DUFF’ ($10.8). The production budget was $7M, with $12M spent on advertising. If it makes it to $20M at the box office, it’ll be okay. Anything more would be great.

Critics didn’t really care for ‘Five Feet Apart’, with a lackluster 53% on RT, but teenage audiences loved it, with an A+ CinemaScore (for those under 18), and 3½ stars on PostTrak.

‘How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’ came in at #4, earning an extra $9.3M, and bringing its domestic total to $135.6M. ‘Madea’s Family Funeral’ took #5, with $8.1M.

TOP FIVE:

Captain Marvel (Disney) – $69.3M
Wonder Park (Paramount) — $16M
Five Feet Apart (CBS Films/Lionsgate) — $13.1M
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Dreamworks Animation/Universal) – $9.3M
Madea’s Family Funeral (Lionsgate) – $8.1M

The other new release, aimed at older males, failed to make it into the Top Five.

Alien invasion flick, ‘Captive State’ looks to be one of this year’s biggest flops. With a budget of $25M (which is pretty low), this Rupert Wyatt picture, which starred John Goodman and a mostly fresh young cast, from Focus Features, Participant Media, and DreamWorks made a truly miserable $1.2M. Those that dared to check it out basically hated it, giving it a C- CinemaScore, and two stars on PostTrak. Critics weren’t kinder, with it ranking 46% on RT.

This poor performance landed it at #7 on the charts, behind another new release, the Spanish-language comedy ‘No Manches Frida 2’. But that picture only played on 472 screens. ‘Captive State’ opened on 2,548! Ouch!

Next weekend should belong to ‘Us’, Jordan Peele‘s followup to his Academy Award-winning breakout film ‘Get Out’. The film recently premiered at SXSW where it got a standing ovation. At this point, based on 55 reviews, ‘Us’ is sitting pretty with 100% on RT.