It was yet another monster weekend for Disney and Marvel's Black Panther as the superhero feature became the third fastest film to ever reach $500 million domestic. Meanwhile, the weekend's new wide releases came up just a bit short of Mojo's pre-weekend forecast with Fox's Red Sparrow taking runner-up position behind Black Panther and MGM's Death Wish landing in third. It's also Oscar Sunday, which means we'll end this recap with a brief look at this some of year's nominees and how they stack up at the box office.
With an estimated $65.7 million, Disney and Marvel Studios's Black Panther topped the weekend box office for the third straight weekend, becoming only the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to accomplish that feat over its first three weeks in release, the others being Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers. As noted above, the film also topped $500 million domestic, becoming the third fastest film to do so, bringing in $501.1 million in just 17 days, tied with Jurassic World and one day behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Black Panther's performance so far has it ranked as the tenth highest grossing domestic release of all-time, third highest grossing comic book adaptation and superhero film and it has now found a spot within the all-time top 50 worldwide. This weekend's performance was also the third largest third weekend of all-time and should the past two weekends be any indication, it could leapfrog Avatar for second largest if actuals come in ~$2.8 million higher than estimates.
Speaking of worldwide, Black Panther added another $56.2 million internationally this weekend, pushing its overseas cume of $396.6 million for a global tally just shy of $900 million. This weekend saw the film open in Japan with an estimated $2.4 million ($4.2M including previews), besting Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok. The UK still leads all international markets with nearly $50 million followed by South Korea ($41.4 million). Black Panther will open in China, its final international market, next weekend.
In second is Fox's Red Sparrow, an adaptation of the first novel in Jason Matthews' trilogy starring Jennifer Lawrence and directed by Francis Lawrence. Debuting in 3,056 locations, the film brought in an estimated $17 million, which is in line with the studio's expectations while a bit behind Mojo's pre-weekend forecast. The film received a "B" CinemaScore and played to an opening weekend audience that was 53% female vs. 47% male and of 79% of its overall audience was over the age of 25.
Red Sparrow also brought in an estimated $26.5 million internationally this weekend. Leading the way was Taiwan with $2.4 million followed by Spain ($2m), Italy ($1.5m) and Hong Kong ($762K). Upcoming markets include Japan (Mar 30), France (Apr 4) and Russia (May 31).
Looking ahead, it's tough to determine just how well this film will perform based on pre-weekend comparisons, which had us looking at Atomic Blonde and Ghost in the Shell, both of which debuted with over $18 million and, like Sparrow, received a "B" CinemaScore. Neither of those films, however, played to a majority female audience with Atomic's 51% male audience being the closest while Ghost in the Shell joined Sparrow in playing to an older audience at 76% over the age of 25. Averaging the two films out would point toward a $45 million domestic run for Sparrow, which seems like a reasonable high-end at this point.
Landing in third is MGM's Death Wish, a remake of Charles Bronson's 1974 classic starring Bruce Willis and directed by Eli Roth. The film debuted in 2,847 locations and delivered an estimated $13 million over its opening weekend. The film received a "B+" CinemaScore and played to an audience that was 57% male vs. 43% female and 53% of the overall audience was over the age of 35. Looking ahead, the debut is relatively in line with our pre-weekend comp to The Foreigner, which opened with $13.1 million and ended its domestic run just shy of $35 million. The Foreigner, however, received a "A-" CinemaScore and was better received by critics suggesting an overall domestic performance right around $30 million may be a better bet.
WB's release of New Line's Game Night held on strong in its second weekend, delivering an estimated $10.7 million, signaling a 37% drop as the film's cume reached $33.5 million in its first ten days in release. Internationally the film added $8.4 million, pushing its worldwide cume just shy of $50 million.
Rounding out the top five is Sony's Peter Rabbit, which dropped just 22% and delivered an estimated $10 million in its fourth weekend in release for a domestic cume that now stands at $84 million. Additionally, the film landed in its first major international market this weekend, bringing in an estimated $12.7 million in China. The film's overall international weekend topped $14 million for a worldwide box office that now tops $101 million. Over the coming weeks the film will launch in Mexico (Mar 16), UK (Mar 16), Australia (Mar 22), Brazil (Mar 22), Germany (Mar 22), Italy (Mar 22), Russia (Mar 22) and Spain (Mar 23).
Outside the top five Sony's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle continued its impressive run with an estimated $4.5 million, pushing its domestic gross to $393.2 million. Added to that, Jumanji brought in an estimated $1.9 million internationally, pushing its global cume to $928.9 million. The film will launch in Japan, its final international market, on April 6.
In limited release Sony Classics's Foxtrot debuted in four locations with an estimated $36,786 ($9,197 PTA) and Hannover's Death House opened in one theater with an estimated $10,295.
Finally, considering it is Oscar Sunday, of this year's Oscar nominees The Greatest Showman is the only nominee that remains in the weekend top ten, having done so for 11 consecutive weeks and it was yet another standout weekend as the film dropped less than 22% for the ninth time out of ten weekends, delivering an estimated $2.67 million for a domestic cume just shy of $165 million.
TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
1 | 1 | Black Panther | BV | $66,306,935 | -40.6% | 4,084 | +64 | $16,236 | $501,706,972 | - | 3 |
2 | N | Red Sparrow | Fox | $16,853,422 | - | 3,056 | - | $5,515 | $16,853,422 | $69 | 1 |
3 | N | Death Wish (2018) | MGM | $13,010,267 | - | 2,847 | - | $4,570 | $13,010,267 | $30 | 1 |
4 | 2 | Game Night | WB | $10,412,496 | -38.8% | 3,502 | +14 | $2,973 | $33,240,262 | $37 | 2 |
5 | 3 | Peter Rabbit | Sony | $10,005,177 | -21.6% | 3,607 | -100 | $2,774 | $84,065,553 | $50 | 4 |
6 | 4 | Annihilation | Par. | $5,607,902 | -49.3% | 2,112 | +100 | $2,655 | $20,594,644 | $40 | 2 |
7 | 6 | Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | Sony | $4,438,090 | -21.5% | 2,313 | -206 | $1,919 | $393,139,443 | $90 | 11 |
8 | 5 | Fifty Shades Freed | Uni. | $3,400,505 | -52.4% | 2,614 | -651 | $1,301 | $95,689,965 | $55 | 4 |
9 | 8 | The Greatest Showman | Fox | $2,703,357 | -20.8% | 1,407 | -194 | $1,921 | $164,644,800 | $84 | 11 |
10 | 9 | Every Day (2018) | Orion | $1,542,354 | -48.9% | 1,669 | +2 | $924 | $5,243,158 | $4.9 | 2 |