Endgame Fights Off Three New Challengers
In one of the year’s least surprising developments, Avengers: Endgame continued to dominate the North American box office in its sophomore weekend (May 3-5), shattering yet more records in the process and making every other film look like small potatoes by comparison. The Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios epic’s overwhelming drawing power left little room for a trio of new releases aimed at disparate audiences — Long Shot, UglyDolls and The Intruder — all of which struggled to register under Endgame’s shadow.
With $147.83 million, the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise continued toppling records over the weekend, including fastest film to $600 million in North America (reached in just 10 days, breaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ 12-day record) and fastest to $2 billion worldwide, leveling The Force Awakens’ 47-day record. That said, it fell a bit more than expected in the U.S. (58.7 percent), and as a result fell short of breaking The Force Awakens’ $149.2 million second-weekend record despite an opening weekend of $357.12million, 44 percent higher than The Force Awakens’ $248 million.
With $621.287 million domestically after just 10 days, Endgame is now the ninth highest-grossing movie of all time in North America, just below Star Wars: The Last Jedi with $620.1 million, as well as the first Avengers, which earned $623.3 million in 2012.
Overseas, Endgame continued its explosive run with an estimated $282.2 million in its second weekend. In China, it is now the highest-grossing Western release of all time with $575.8 million and third overall behind Wolf Warrior 2 with $854.2 million and The Wandering Earth with $691.6 million. Its overseas total now stands at $1.57 million, putting it second on the list of highest-grossing movies internationally surpassing Titanic’s $1.55 million. Its total worldwide gross of $2.189 billion also makes it the second highest-grossing film of all time globally, just passing Titanicwith $2.187 billion and behind only Avatar Swith $2.788 billion.
With Endgame continuing to dominate, Sony Pictures/Screen Gems’ The Intruder finished a distant second with $10.86 million in its debut weekend. The domestic thriller starring Meagan Good and Michael Ealy was produced on a reported budget of just $8 million, similar to other inexpensive Screen Gems thrillers like When the Bough Breaks, No Good Deed and The Perfect Guy. That said, those films opened considerably higher with $14.2 million, $24.2 million and $25.8 million, respectively — although none had to compete with a giant like Endgame. Nonetheless, this is a decent result that was roughly in line with expectations.
Opening in third place was the R-rated Charlize Theron-Seth Rogen comedy Long Shot with $9.74 million. That was at the conservative end of expectations for the Lionsgate Films/Summit Entertainment release, which couldn’t cracked the double-digit millions despite two popular stars and mainly positive reviews. The film was viewed as a counter-programming option to Endgame, but it is hard not to wonder how this one would have performed had it been a bit further removed from the Marvel blockbuster’s opening weekend. The audience was 56 percent female, with 68 percent over the age of 35. The latter suggests the film has potential to hold well in the weeks ahead given that older audiences tend not to rush out on opening weekend the way younger moviegoers do.
The third of the weekend’s new releases, STX Entertainment’s UglyDolls, finished in fourth place with $8.60 million. That is a disappointing result for the animated musical-comedy, which suffered in part from lackluster reviews despite a voice cast that includes Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monae and Pitbull. Budgeted at a reported $45 million, the film received a reasonably-good scores from opening day audiences, but next weekend’s Pokemon Detective Pikachu looks likely to steal away a good portion of its audience. Co-financed and co-produced by Chinese film company Alibaba Pictures, UglyDolls will be released in China this summer.
In fifth place, Disney/Marvel’s Captain Marvel continued to benefit from Endgame’s presence falling 48.5 percent to $4.28 million in its ninth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $420.77 million. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox’s faith-based drama Breakthrough dropped 42.6 percent to sixth with $3.91 million for a North American total of $33.18 million, while seventh place went to Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinemas’ The Curse of La Llorona, which slipped 54.0 percent to $3.70 million for $48.30 million in North America after three weeks.
Rounding out the Top 10, Warner Bros.’ Shazam! slid 55.2 percent to eighth place with $2.50 million in its fifth weekend and $135.25 million to date in North America. Disney’s Dumbo fell 56.7 percent to finish in ninth with $1.51 million for $109.79 million domestically after six weeks, and Universal Pictures’ Little dropped 59.1 percent to $1.42 million and 10th place, bringing its domestic total to $38.53 million after four weeks.
This coming week, Warner Bros. will release Pokemon Detective Pikachu, United Artists Releasing debuts The Hustle and Disney opens Fox Searchlight’s Tolkien.
The top 10 films grossed $193.90 million. That is 51.9 percent behind the previous weekend’s $396.47 million total. But it is 22.0 percent ahead of the $158.97 million earned on the same weekend last year, when Aveengers: Infinity War led with $114.77 million for the second weekend. Total box office year-to-date stands at $3.68 billion. That is 9.6 percent behind last year.
May 3-5, 2019
This Week | Last Week | Movie | Weekend Gross | Cumulative Gross | Weeks |
1 | 1 | Avengers: Endgame | $147.38M | $621.28M | 2 |
2 | New | The Intruder | $10.86M | $10.86M | 1 |
3 | New | Long Shot | $9.74M | $9.74M | 1 |
4 | New | UglyDolls | $8.60M | $8.60M | 1 |
5 | 2 | Captain Marvel | $4.28M | $420.77M | 9 |
6 | 4 | Breakthrough | $3.91M | $33.18M | 3 |
7 | 3 | The Curse of La Llorona | $3.70M | $48.30M | 3 |
8 | 5 | Shazam! | $2.50M | $135.25M | 5 |
9 | 6 | Dumbo | $1.51M | $109.79M | 6 |
10 | 7 | Little | $1.42M | $38.53M | 4 |
Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.