By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Captain America: Civil War took a sharp turn but nonetheless maintained a commanding lead with an estimated $72.6 million. The week’s two national rollout performed roughly as expected, with Money Monster slotting third with $14.8 million and the The Darkness a notch back at $5.2 million.
There were encouraging starts among limited and exclusive openers. Whit Stillman’s Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship bowed with $131,000 from four engagements while sci-fier The Lobster dined out on an impressive $192,000 from its quartet. The latter opened two months ago with a current Northern cume of about $330,000. Top Indian import was the Punjabi Azhar with $124,000.
Revenues for the frame were slighter better than $130 million pushing the domestic cume to more than $4 billion. The 2016 pace is 9% better than a year ago while the current weekend dipped 47% from seven days ago. It was also 30% off of 2015 when debuts of Cinderella and Run All Night led, with respective openers of $67.9 million and $11 million.
Despite its heavyweight cast, politically-charged Money Monster was tepid with high-end estimates of $15 million. Reviews were lukewarm but its fortunes may not be so dire with its position as one of the few mature-targeted films in the marketplace. Studio exit demos identified the audience as evenly split between the sexes with 77% aged 25-years and older. Following its Cannes premiere, Money Monster opened day-and-date in 15 foreign climes. Foreign estimates were unavailable.
The Blumhouse fright machine continued with The Darkness and as one industryite observed: “They make ‘em so cheap, a gross of $1.42 puts them in profit.”
The relative lull in the marketplace allowed for modest expansions for a number of titles including Sing Street, The Meddler and The Man Who Knew Infinity. The trio and other alternative options are largely holding their own against stiff competition.
Captain America: Civil War added an estimated $84 million internationally to lead in that arena.
| Weekend (estimates) May 13 – 15, 2016 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| Captain America: Civil War | BV | 72.6 (17,190) | -59% | 4226 | 296 |
| The Jungle Book | BV | 17.6 (4,440) | -28% | 3970 | 311.6 |
| Money Monster | Sony | 14.8 (4,760) | NEW | 3104 | 14.8 |
| The Darkness | High Top | 5.2 (2,950) | NEW | 1755 | 5.2 |
| Mother’s Day | Open Road/Elevation | 3.2 (970) | -71% | 3291 | 28.7 |
| Zootopia | BV | 2.7 (1,420) | -15% | 1935 | 331.7 |
| The Huntsman: Winter’s War | Uni | 2.6 (1,020) | -35% | 2518 | 44.5 |
| Keanu | WB | 1.9 (890) | -42% | 2120 | 18.6 |
| Barbershop: The Next Cut | WB | 1.7 (1,250) | -40% | 1333 | 51.4 |
| The Boss | Uni | 1.2 (860) | -39% | 1350 | 62.1 |
| Sing Street | Weinstein Co. | .63 (1,200) | 44% | 525 | 1.9 |
| Ratchet & Clank | Focus | .54 (430) | -63% | 1258 | 8.1 |
| Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice | WB | .52 (700) | -51% | 744 | 328.2 |
| The Man Who Knew Infinity | IFC | .51 (2,630) | 132% | 194 | 0.92 |
| My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 | Uni | .46 (650) | -27% | 717 | 59 |
| Green Room | A24/D Films | .41 (530) | 21% | 777 | 2.7 |
| The Meddler | Sony Classics | .38 (3,020) | 24% | 127 | 1.1 |
| Eye in the Sky | Bleecker/eOne | .38 (1,050) | -33% | 360 | 17.9 |
| Hello, My Name is Doris | Roadside Attractions | .28 (1,080) | -19% | 257 | 13.8 |
| A Hologram for the King | Roadside At/eOne | .25 (730) | -50% | 346 | 3.9 |
| 24 | CineGalaxy | .23 (1,650) | -77% | 142 | 1.4 |
| Deadpool | Fox | .19 (740) | -19% | 262 | 362.5 |
| The Lobster | A24 | .19 (47,700) | NEW | 4 | 0.19 |
| 10 Cloverfield Lane | Par | .19 (720) | 68% | 260 | 71.7 |
| A Bigger Splash | Fox Searchlight | .18 (7,080) | 61% | 26 | 0.37 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $125.70 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -30% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -47% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Love & Friendship | Roadside Attract. | .13 (32,800) | 4 | 0.13 | |
| AmeriGeddon | Forewarned | .13 (4,270) | 30 | 0.13 | |
| Azhar | White Hill | .12 (2,040) | 61 | 0.12 | |
| Finding Mr. Right 2 | Media Asia | 86,800 (2,280) | -56% | 38 | 1.2 |
| Miles Ahead | Sony Classics | 84,500 (1,010) | -38% | 84 | 2.4 |
| High-Rise | Magnolia | 71,300 (2,380) | 30 | 0.07 | |
| The Family Fang | Starz | 56,300 (1,150) | -40% | 49 | 0.21 |
| Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero | Front Row | 50,900 (12,720) | 4 | 0.05 | |
| Sundown | Lionsgate | 16,800 (230) | 74 | 0.02 | |
| 2 Bol | Hot Ice | 15,600 (870) | 18 | 0.02 | |
| Sunset Song | Magnolia | 14,200 (3,550) | 4 | 0.01 | |
| Last Days in the Desert | Broad Green | 12,600 (1,580) | 8 | 0.01 | |
| Kill Zone 2 | Well Go | 8,850 (800) | 11 | 0.01 | |
| Phantom Detective | CJ | 7,300 (7,300) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Pele | IFC | 7,100 (2,370) | 3 | 0.01 | |
| How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town | Gravitas | 5,900 (540) | 11 | 0.01 | |
| Search Party | Focus | 3,800 (480) | 8 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – May 12, 2016) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Buena Vista (7) | 1172.6 | 29.60% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (10) | 769.6 | 19.40% | |||
| Warner Bros. (10) | 471.3 | 11.90% | |||
| Universal (8) | 321.4 | 8.10% | |||
| Paramount (8) | 315.6 | 8.00% | |||
| Lionsgate (12) | 205.5 | 5.20% | |||
| Sony (12) | 175.7 | 4.40% | |||
| Focus (6) | 121.7 | 3.10% | |||
| Open Road (4) | 63.4 | 1.60% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (7) | 53.8 | 1.40% | |||
| STX (3) | 42.4 | 1.10% | |||
| A24 (5) | 35.1 | 0.90% | |||
| Fox Searhlight (4) | 17.1 | 0.45% | |||
| Bleecker Street (3) | 17.1 | 0.45% | |||
| Sony Classics (7) | 16.9 | 0.40% | |||
| Other * (148) | 159.6 | 4.00% | |||
| 3958.8 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.35% | |||||
| Top Domestic Grossers (January 1 – May 12, 2016) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Deadpool | Fox | 362,318,179 | |||
| Zootopia | BV | 329,014,439 | |||
| Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice | WB | 327,679,243 | |||
| The Jungle Book | BV | 293,996,110 | |||
| Star Wars: The Force Awakens * | BV | 284,449,924 | |||
| Captain America: Civil War | BV | 223,329,078 | |||
| The Revenant * | Fox | 182,736,971 | |||
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | Fox | 142,283,408 | |||
| Ride Along 2 | Uni | 91,205,257 | |||
| Daddy’s Home * | Par | 85,902,195 | |||
| 10 Cloverfield Lane | Par | 71,510,806 | |||
| Allegiant | Lionsgate | 65,762,792 | |||
| London Has Fallen | Focus/VVS | 62,115,298 | |||
| Miracles from Heaven | Sony | 60,153,577 | |||
| The Boss | Uni | 59,961,700 | |||
| My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 | Uni | 58,487,890 | |||
| 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghai | Par | 52,897,721 | |||
| Barbershop: The Next Cut | WB | 49,680,702 | |||
| How to Be Single | WB | 46,962,319 | |||
| The Big Short * | Par | 46,300,694 | |||
| * does not include 2015 box office | |||||
I’m not taking sides here, because I just kind of don’t care about superhero movies in general, but its interesting how BvS drops 66% in its second weekend and its written off as a failure and alarm bells are going off, but Civil War drops 72% and everyone shrugs. Isn’t it just time to say that these superhero movies are all pretty much front loaded?
EDIT: never mind. I misread the charts. It dropped 59%. Still, superhero movies are front loaded, imo.