Weekend Wrap-Up: Endgame Barely Tops Infinity War, Pickachu Solves Video Game Adaptations
May 14, 2019
The two biggest hits of the weekend were not as potent as predicted, but Avengers: Endgame and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu both have reasons to celebrate. Endgame became only the fourth film to reach $700 million domestically, while Detective Pikachu nearly entered the top ten video game adaptations of all time after just its opening weekend. As for the other wide releases, The Hustle did fine and the less said about Poms and Tolkien the better. The overall box office 16% from last weekend hitting $168 million. However, this was 21% higher than the same weekend last year, which is clearly the more important figure, as 2019 continues to try and climb out of the hole it dug for itself. It is now behind last year by 8.7% or $370 million at $3.83 billion to $4.20 billion.
It looks like Avengers: Endgame won’t be able to catch The Force Awakens on the all-time domestic box office chart. This week it fell 57% to $63.30 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $723.75 million. It did overtake Black Panther for third place on that chart and it will top Avatar very shortly. However, it was barely ahead of Infinity War on the largest 3rd weekend chart, so even with the holidays around the corner, it won't have the legs to break many more records domestically. That said, it has already made enough domestically to pay for its entire $350 million production budget and a chunk of its reported $150 million advertising budget.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu opened with $54.37 million over the weekend, making it the the fastest opening video game movie of all time. It is also the best-reviewed such film and with an A minus from CinemaScore, it should have reasonable legs. On the downside, it did cost $150 million to make and likely $100 million to advertise, but it is still well on its way to breaking even early in its home market run.
The Hustle was the only pleasant surprise among the new releases, as it earned $13.01 million. This is not an amazing start, but it is better than expected, especially since it had such a hard time sticking to a release date. I don’t expect long legs, as its reviews are terrible and it only managed a B minus from CinemaScore. That said, it could have been much worse, so the studio should be a little relieved at this result.
The Intruder only fell 34% to $7.19 million over the weekend for a total of $21.57 million after two. This is an amazing hold for a thriller, especially one with such terrible reviews.
Long Shot rounded out the top five with $6.27 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $19.88 million. This is a good hold and it suggests it will top $30 million domestically. Unfortunately, it cost more than that to make, so it will need help internationally and on the home market to break even.
Poms missed the top five and the Mendoza Line earning $5.36 million during its opening weekend. The film’s Tomatometer Score is just 32% positive, while it only managed a B plus from CinemaScore. On the other hand, it is aimed at more mature women, so its legs could be better than average regardless of its quality.
Tolkien also missed the Mendoza Line with $2.20 million in just under 1,500 theaters for an average of $1,472. The film feels like a prestige release, one that would open during Awards Season, but its reviews are merely mixed, which killed its box office chances.
The only film in the sophomore class to not reach the top five was UglyDolls. This film fell 52% to $4.15 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $14.51 million. A 52% decline is sharp for a family film, but it had direct competition.
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Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Avengers: Endgame, UglyDolls, Long Shot, The Hustle, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, The Intruder, Poms, Tolkien