Faced with a whopping five new wide releases this weekend, Black Panther was finally pushed from the top of the chart after six weeks in theaters. The victor was Pacific Rim Uprising, which came in at the higher end of expectations with an estimated $28 million for Universal in its opening frame.
The sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 sci-fi/actioner is more or less designed for overseas audiences, so Uprising‘s domestic take isn’t necessarily make-or-break. That said, this is significantly lower than the first film’s $37.3 million opening, and it will almost certainly well short of the original’s $101 million take in North America. Internationally, the first Pacific Rim took in over $300 million, accounting for roughly three-quarters of its $400 million-plus global total. Uprising is looking at a similar trajectory.
Helmed by Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight in his feature directorial debut, Uprising was less well-received than its predecessor, garnering only so-so reviews and a “B” Cinemascore from audiences (the breakdown was 62% male to 38% female). Its 46% score on Rotten Tomatoes may have hurt its chances of attaining a higher opening, and if it performs anything like Del Toro’s film it’s looking at sharp weekend-to-weekend drops in the weeks ahead. The reported budget on this one is $150 million.
Falling to second for the first time with an estimated $16.7 million, Black Panther nevertheless racked up another box office record this weekend, and it’s a doozy: the Marvel release is now the highest-grossing superhero film of all time in North America, with an estimated $631 million through Sunday. Yes, the MCU blockbuster has officially surpassed The Avengers‘ $623.3 million total, accomplishing the feat in 38 days of release. It also topped last year’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi this weekend, vaulting it to No. 5 on the list of all-time blockbusters, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.6 million), Avatar ($760.5 million), Titanic ($659.3 million), and Jurassic World ($652.2 million). With legs this sturdy, Black Panther will easily top the latter two titles by the end of its run.
Adding over 600 screens following its surprisingly-potent $17.1 million debut last weekend, Roadside Attractions’ Christian-themed hit I Can Only Imagine dropped just 19 percent to $13.8 million for a third place finish, giving it a total of $38.3 million after ten days. That’s a better second-weekend hold than last year’s faith-based success story The Shack, which dropped 38% in its sophomore frame (albeit without the benefit of additional screens) after opening to $16.1 million. That film finished with a very healthy $57.3 million domestically, but Imagine‘s current trajectory and word-of-mouth (it boasts an A+ Cinemascore) suggests it will end up finishing well north of that total.
Faring less well in its second weekend of release was Warner Bros.’ Tomb Raider, which dropped 56 percent to $10.4 million in fifth place, giving it a total of $41.7 million thus far. The video game reboot starring Alicia Vikander has struggled to make a dent in the crowded blockbuster marketplace; along with the still-potent Black Panther, Pacific Rim Uprising appears to have taken a significant bite out of its audience this weekend.
Among new releases, Sherlock Gnomes fell short of expectations in fourth place, taking in a disappointing $10.6 million in its debut frame. The Paramount-MGM co-production seems to have suffered from both a dismal critical reception and the fact that it took seven years to get the Gnomeo and Juliet sequel to the big screen. Its Disney-released predecessor opened to a much-healthier $25.3 million in 2011 and proved to be a relatively leggy title, allowing it to finish with just shy of $100 million domestically. It seems family audiences have moved on to other franchises in the years since, and that 19% score on Rotten Tomatoes clearly didn’t inspire many of those who turned out for the first movie to return for a second round.
In seventh, the Biblical drama Paul, Apostle of Christ opened to an estimated $5 million in 1,473 theaters, a decent start for the Sony release considering its budget and screen count. Starring The Passion of the Christ‘s Jim Caviezel, the film may have suffered a bit with I Can Only Imagine gobbling up a larger-than-expected portion of the faith-based audience. Luckily the reported budget on this one is just $5 million, so profitability shouldn’t be an issue here.
Also opening quietly in tenth place was the Bella Thorne-Patrick Schwarzenegger romance Midnight Sun, which grossed just $4.12 million in its debut. While that’s marginally better than the $3 million opening of YA sci-fi/romance Every Day earlier this month, it seems to have been afflicted by a similarly generic execution that failed to set it apart from the raft of other YA flicks that have hit theaters over the course of the last several years. Look for this one to fade quickly from theaters on its way to VOD and streaming formats.
Finishing just outside the Top 10 with an estimated $3.8 million was Steven Soderbergh’s well-reviewed psychological thriller Unsane, which failed to capture a wide audience even as it won praise from critics and boasted a unique visual gimmick (it was entirely shot on an iPhone 7 Plus). Starring Claire Foy as a woman involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, the $1.2 million film falls squarely on the “experimental” side of Soderberghs’ oeuvre and has been received as such despite being released on over 2,000 screens. Perhaps the most apt comparison in terms of subject matter would be the director’s own Side Effects, which opened to $9.3 million in 2013 but benefitted from a better-known cast (Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones).
Among holdovers, Fox’s Love, Simon held well in seventh place, dropping just 34 percent to $7.8 million. That gives the film – which is notable as the first mainstream studio rom-com featuring a gay teen in the lead role – a decent $23.6 million after ten days. In sixth, Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time dropped 50 percent to an estimated $8 million, bringing its domestic total to $73.9 million. In ninth, the leggy Warner Bros. comedy Game Night grossed another $4.16 million, bringing its total to a healthy $60.8 million after five weeks of play.
Limited Release:
Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs opened well in its platform release, grossing an estimated $1.57 million on just 27 screens. Featuring an all-star voice cast including Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, and Frances McDormand, the film enjoyed a strong per-theater average of $58,148, an impressive start as it prepares to open wider in the coming weeks.
IFC’s The Death of Stalin continued to perform well in its expansion, taking in an estimated $1.06 million on 141 screens, for a per-screen average of $7,519. Its total now stands at $2.09 million after three weeks.
Overseas Update:
As anticipated, Pacific Rim Uprising did most of its business internationally this weekend, with the monsters vs. robots tentpole opening to an estimated $150.5 million overseas. That amount includes a sizzling $65 million in China – a 40 percent increase over the first installment, which debuted to $45 million there. Opening at No. 1 in 30 markets, it also grossed an estimated $6.8 million in both Korea and Russia. Hong Kong is up next weekend, followed by a release in Japan on April 13.
Tomb Raider grossed another $34.1 million internationally in its second go-round, giving it a running total of $170 million overseas and a global total of $211.7 million. Despite faltering in North America, the Warner Bros. release has been propped up by international audiences and has grossed a whopping 80 percent of its total overseas, including $69.4 million in China.
The post ‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ Battles to No. 1 with $28M; ‘Black Panther’ Breaks ‘Avengers’ Record with $16.7M in 2nd appeared first on BoxOffice Pro.
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