Four wide-release films landed in theaters this week, each one of them perhaps hoping to overthrow DC’s mighty superhero flick Shazam!.
But here’s the thing: Superheroes are used to fighting multiple adversaries at a time.
For the second-straight weekend, DC’s lightning-bolt-branded hero electrified the box office and charged to victory, snapping up an estimated $25.1 million in North America. That pushes Shazam!’s (I hate it when movies put punctuation marks in their titles) overall domestic haul to $94.9 million. Add in the $126.3 million the film’s made overseas, and that’s enough to buy plenty of junk food from a nearly-robbed convenience store.
And lest we forget, the victory also marks the fourth time in six weeks that a superhero once-or-currently-named Captain Marvel fronted a No. 1 movie.
But while Shazam! might’ve made the biggest splash, a “Little” movie did pretty well for itself, too. The age-changing comedy, scored a surprise second-place finish with $15.5 million, trouncing the seriously staggering Hellboy. While not many expected the R-rated comic-based superhero fantasy to challenge Shazam! for top honors, its makers did expect it to earn at least $17 million, according to Box Office Mojo. After all, they likely spent that much on fake body parts alone. But some infernal reviews (including the one from yours truly) doomed this flick from the moment it opened. It mustered a mere $12 million, barely enough to pay Charon the ferryman for the ride back home.
Two holdovers, Pet Sematary and Dumbo, closed out the top five. Sematary’s creepy cat unearthed another $10 million, while Disney’s flying elephant carried back another $9.2 million to the Mickey Mouse mansion.
Another pair of newcomers finished well outside the top five. After, a steamy teen romance, finished the weekend with $6.2 million. That makes it very much an (ahem) afterthought, but it still did better than Missing Link. The animated caper earned just $5.8 million—half of what its makers were expecting—to finish ninth. Missing Link? Try missing in action.
Recent Comments