The other studios didn’t try very hard to compete with the second weekend of CAPTAIN MARVEL (Marvel/Disney), and the blockbuster will have no trouble repeating as #1 this week. According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, the Friday-to-Friday drop was 70% (to $18.8M), which sounds like a lot, but is fairly standard for the genre. It’s the same drop as Avengers: Infinity War, and better than the 75% for Avengers: Age of Ultron and the 74% for Captain America: Civil War (let alone the 80% for Suicide Squad and 82% for Batman v Superman), although not as strong as the 62% for Black Panther or the 59% for Wonder Woman. The drop should settle to around 55% for the weekend, putting it at $70M, which would be the #7 Marvel 2nd weekend, and it’s still on track for a $400M US total.
WONDER PARK (Nickelodeon/Paramount) aimed for the very young audience as counterprogramming, and its $5.6M Friday should bring it to $17M for the weekend, a mediocre result considering that it carries a reported $200M in production and worldwide marketing costs. It faces direct competition from Dumbo in 2 weeks, and will need to wildly overperform internationally to have any chance of breaking even.
FIVE FEET APART (CBS/Lionsgate) was a much less expensive proposition, with perhaps $60M in total costs, so its $5.2M Friday and likely $13M weekend give it a fighting chance if it can generate some word of mouth.
CAPTIVE STATE (Focus/Universal) looks like a total loss, with a $1.3M Friday that probably won’t get it much higher than $3M for the weekend.
The Spanish-language NO MANCHES FRIDA 2 (Pantelion/Lionsgate) opened slightly under wide release, in 472 theatres, with a solid $1.3M on Friday. That’s on par with the $1.1M opening day for the first No Manches Frida, which launched a bit more narrowly at 362 theatres. The Latinx audience tends to be extremely strong on Sundays (the first film climbed 13% on its 3rd day of release), so the weekend could hit $4M. The first film never went wider than 465 theatres, with an $11.5M US total, and we’ll see if the plans this time are more ambitious.
Among non-Marvel holdovers, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) led the way, down just 25% from last Friday to $2.5M, for an $11M weekend. It should reach $160M in the US.
A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL (Lionsgate) held well for that franchise, with a Friday-to-Friday drop of 35% to $2.1M, putting it on track for a $7.5M weekend and a US total possibly as high as $70M+, which would put it in the top 3 of the franchise.
THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART (Warners Animation) is running out of gas but holding well with a 28% drop from last Friday to $600K, for a $2.5M weekend and a US total that should pass $105M, still down a sharp 60% from the first Lego Movie.
ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (20th) dropped 42% from last Friday to $500K, for a $1.7M weekend and a US total that will stall around $85M. It’s earned almost 80% of its worldwide total overseas.
FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (Annapurna/MGM) didn’t find its audience, down 42% from last Friday to $300K, on its way to a $1.3M weekend and a US total that probably won’t even get to $25M.