The opening projections for Memorial Day weekend’s two big movie releases didn’t look too hot on Saturday. Ultimately, one franchise pulled through over the four-day weekend to at least meet expectations, while the other continued to decline and drastically miss its studio predictions.
Coming in at #1 was ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘, the fourth Bryan Singer-directed entry to Fox’s nine-movie-deep franchise. Although ‘Apocalypse’ followed through with the studio estimates – grossing $65.3 million over the three-day weekend and $80 million for the four-day weekend – the three-day opening still came in $25.5 million behind the last ‘X-Men’ entry, 2014’s ‘Days of Future Past‘. The franchise had a great rebound after ‘First Class’, but the performance of ‘Apocalypse’ has to be a letdown for Fox – especially after seeing such a massive boost from ‘Deadpool‘. How worried do you think Fox execs are for next year’s (supposedly) final Wolverine movie?
Internationally, ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ is still doing just fine. After last week’s fairly wide head start overseas and this week’s further expansion, the film has an international total of $185.8 million, which brings its worldwide total to $265.8 million.
The movie that took a box office beating was Disney’s ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass‘, which came in at #2. Hitting screens six years after Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland‘ and with mostly negative reviews, the sequel opened $89.2 million behind the record-setting original. While ‘Wonderland’ earned $116.1 million over its first three days in March 2010, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ only claimed $26.9 million over the three-day weekend. The four-day weekend resulted in $34.1 million, which is brutally low when you consider that Disney expected it to make $52 million over the four days. Internationally, the movie opened in the majority of markets and drew $65 million. With a budget of $170 million, the global opening of $99.1 million isn’t so great.
‘The Angry Birds Movie‘ landed in third place in its second week. Over the first three days, it had a light 36% decline in attendance and pulled $18.7 million. The animated family flick closed out the four-day weekend with $24.6 million, giving it a domestic 11-day total of $72.2 million. Overseas, the success of the $73 million movie continues. It has earned $157.2 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $229.4 million.
Four-week-old ‘Captain America: Civil War‘ finished in fourth place with a $15.3 million three-day total and a $19.7 million four-day total. To date, it has made $377.1 million domestically and $730.7 million overseas, giving it $1.1 billion worldwide.
Rounding out the Top 5 was ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising‘. Universal’s comedy sequel had a less-than-impressive opening last week – and the second week wasn’t any better. Its three-day total came in at $9.2 million, which brought a heavy 57% decline, and the four-day numbers tallied $11.4 million. The domestic numbers now sit at $40.6 million, which isn’t great for a heavily marketed $35 million picture. Luckily, the international box office sits at $36.5 million. That’s still low compared to the first ‘Neighbors‘, but the movie should be in the positive before long.
3-Day Weekend Top 10:
1. ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ (Fox) – $65,300,000
2. ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ (Buena Vista) – $26,997,000
3. ‘The Angry Birds Movie’ (Sony) – $18,750,000
4. ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (Buena Vista) – $15,379,000
5. ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising’ (Universal) – $9,274,440
6. ‘The Jungle Book’ (Buena Vista) – $7,111,000
7. ‘The Nice Guys’ (Warner Bros.) – $6,515,000
8. ‘Money Monster’ (TriStar) – $4,350,000
9. ‘Love & Friendship’ (Roadside) – $2,496,000
10. ‘Zootopia’ (Buena Vista) – $821,000
4-Day Weekend Top 10:
1. ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ (Fox) – $80,000,000
2. ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ (Buena Vista) – $34,174,000
3. ‘The Angry Birds Movie’ (Sony) – $24,600,000
4. ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (Buena Vista) – $19,717,000
5. ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising’ (Universal) – $11,443,600
6. ‘The Jungle Book’ (Buena Vista) – $9,235,000
7. ‘The Nice Guys’ (Warner Bros.) – $8,145,000
8. ‘Money Monster’ (TriStar) – $5,550,000
9. ‘Love & Friendship’ (Roadside) – $3,115,031
10. ‘Zootopia’ (Buena Vista) – $1,133,000
Trond Michelsen
Looks like Civil War is beginning to lose steam now. It’s stil ahead of Iron Man 3, but its daily gross is now lower than Stark’s, so I doubt it’ll manage to take in the remaining $30M it needs to surpass IM3’s total. It could get close, though. I expect it to break $400M and end up a couple of millions behind IM3.