Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

Weekend Box Office: Mightier Than the Sword

It was a rough weekend to be a new movie. Friday’s releases not only had to contend against last week’s knockout hit, but against bad marketing, warm weather and Mother’s Day.

The last of those should have helped one movie in particular, but ultimately may have hindered it. Amy Schumer’s new mother/daughter comedy wasn’t exactly a trainwreck, but it certainly failed to meet expectations. Guy Ritchie’s latest is now his second expensive flop in a row. And Doug Liman’s small-scale war drama was detached from its unit (meaning it finished outside the Top 10).

As we all knew it would, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘ retained the top spot at the box office by pulling in $63 million. While that number signifies a steeper dip in attendance (57%) than the original ‘Guardians’ in its second week (55%), it’s pretty much on par for other Marvel sequels. After ten days, the $200 million comic book flick has drawn $246.1 million in domestic ticket sales. Now playing in all international markets, it has also brought in $384.4 million overseas, giving it a $630.5 million worldwide total.

Going into the weekend, Amy Schumer’s ‘Snatched‘ was expected to be narrowly defeated by Guy Ritchie’s fantasy epic. However, with both coming in below expectations (and Ritchie’s being considerably below), ‘Snatched’ ultimately ended as the better of the two. The R-rated comedy grossed $17.5 million domestically and $3.2 million overseas. With a price tag steeper than you’d expect ($42 million), the movie still has a way to go in order to get out the jungle.

As a Guy Ritchie fan who enjoyed both of his recent flops, I feel bad for the guy. His career suffered from quality issues for a short period (see ‘Swept Away’ and ‘Revolver’), but bounced back with ‘RockNRolla’ and the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies. Now, he just can’t catch a break even when delivering solid entertainment. ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword‘ opened to $14.7 million, which was nearly $10 million below predictions. The numbers aren’t any better internationally. From 51 markets, it only made $29.1 million, placing its worldwide debut at $43.8 million. For an expensive production budgeted at $175 million, that’s a crippling blow. Perhaps Ritchie should pull a Shyamalan by going back to tiny films and reinventing himself.

While the wide releases each opened on more than 3,500 screens, one underdog newcomer hit 259 screens and cracked into the Top 10. Produced by Jason Blum and Brian Grazer, ‘Lowriders‘, starring Demian Bichir and Eva Longoria, opened in the #8 spot with $2.4 million (a per-screen average of $8,180). When you take into account that the #10 movie, three-week old ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion‘, is only on 375 screens, that makes two limited releases that are playing with the big leagues and earning better per-screen averages than most of the other Top 10 titles.

From 541 locations, Doug Liman’s new film opened at #14. ‘The Wall‘, which stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena, only made $891,590. That equates to $1,648 per-screen. The film’s production budget hasn’t been revealed, but that debut certainly isn’t good enough.

Top 10:

1. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ (Buena Vista) – $63,007,000

2. ‘Snatched’ (Fox) – $17,500,000

3. ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ (Warner Bros.) – $14,700,000

4. ‘The Fate of the Furious’ (Universal) – $5,301,160

5. ‘The Boss Baby’ (Fox) – $4,600,000

6. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Buena Vista) – $3,860,000

7. ‘How to Be a Latin Lover’ (Pantelion) – $3,750,000

8. ‘Lowriders’ (BH Tilt) – $2,413,205

9. ‘The Circle (STX) – $1,740,000

10. ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ (GRT India) – $1,550,000

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