Seems only appropriate that a superhero would close out 2018 at the top of the box office.
For the second straight week, Aquaman swam to the weekend’s box-office title, finishing almost a full length ahead of the rest of the field. D.C.’s latest cinematic superhero earned an estimated $51.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo, bringing its overall domestic tally to $188.8 million. It continues to make waves overseas, too. Aquaman collected another $85.4 million outside North America, pushing its global cume to an oceanic $748.8 million. Talk about making a splash.
‘Course, in the realm of 2018 cinematic superheroes, Aquaman’s still just a small fish, at least for now. It’s currently 13th on the list of the year’s biggest money-makers (domestically, that is), and a whopping half of the movies in front of it are all superhero flicks: No. 1 Black Panther ($700.1 million); No. 2 Avengers: Infinity War ($678.8 million); No. 3 Incredibles 2 ($608.6 million); No. 5 Deadpool 2 ($318.5 million); No. 8 Ant-Man and the Wasp ($216.6 million); and No. 10 Venom ($213.2 million). Superhero flicks have topped the box office 16 for 16 weekends in 2018. Once again, American cinema wore a cape.
But maybe it also wore a set of mouse ears, because Disney had quite a year, too. A Mouse-House movie topped the charts for a total of 15 weekends in 2018. Five of the year’s top 10 films, including the top three, were Disney properties. So it’s only appropriate that a new look at one of Disney’s most beloved characters, Mary Poppins Returns, finished 2018’s last weekend at No. 2. It earned $28 million and pushed its total haul to $98.9 million.
Bumblebee pollenated the weekend’s third spot, collecting $20.5 million from its theatrical flowers. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse continued to flex its animated muscle, finishing fourth with $18.3 million. And Clint Eastwood’s The Mule held tight to fifth place with $11.8 million.
Christmas’s late arrivals couldn’t dent the top five. Vice, a scathing satire of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s political career, banked just $7.8 million to finish sixth. Still, it did better than Will Ferrell’s and John C. Reilly’s new infantile comedy, Holmes & Watson, which pocketed an abysmal $7.3 million and stumbled to seventh. Why did it fail so badly? Elementary, my dear reader: It wasn’t funny.
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