By Chris Kavan - 02/25/18 at 08:59 PM CT
It wasn't surprising at all to see Black Panther on top of the box office for the second weekend in a row. What is surprising is just how strongly it continues to perform. Plus, the film shows little sign of slowing and it looks to continue to play strong well into March. Opening in second, Game Night had a decent opening versus such competition, but the same couldn't be said for Annihilation, which opened in fourth and with a decidedly low Cinemascore from audiences. And even among holdovers, the news was good, as Peter Rabbit managed a very decent hold and Greatest Showman also continues to impress outside the top five.
1) BLACK PANTHER
The hits keeps on coming for Black Panther, the superheroic supherhero film had spectacular second weekend, becoming only the fourth film to have a $100+ second weekend. In fact, the $108 million is the second-best second weekend of all time, ahead of Jurassic World ($106.4 million) and only behind The Force Awakens ($149 million). It also tied Jurassic World as the second fastest film to hit $400 million (again, behind The Force Awakens), where it now stands. Its 46% second week drop is the best second-week hold among all of the Marvel films - beating the 47% for Thor. While it's not quite best among all superhero films - Wonder Woman dipped 43% and Spider-Man 38% - it is going to soon surpass those films and, in fact, will shortly pass The Dark Knight Rises ($448 million) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($458 million) to become one of the to three supehero films of all time. It is already among the top 30 of all time among movies - and it took just 10 days. When it will assuredly pass The Dark Knight ($534 million) it will also become the highest-grossing solo superhero film of all time. The only thing that is likely to slow the film down are new films - Red Sparrow, A Wrinkle in Time, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Tomb Raider and Ready Player One are all lined up next month. But with a total approaching $490 million by next weekend, it's still going to be a major success. It also continues to play well internationally with $304 million (over $700 million globally) with Japan and China still to come.
2)
GAME NIGHT
With a $16.6 million opening, Game Night easily won the battle of the new releases, while also delivering a decent opening against Black Panther. The $37 million film is on track to make back its budget, and the audience was happy, awarding it a "B+" Cinemascore. That audience was 56% female with a full 80% coming in over the age of 25 (70% over 35). The ensemble comedy hit the right tone with audiences, and its 2.96x weekend multiplier. With Jason Bateman and and Rachel McAdams-led film is looking at a total in the range of the $50 million mark and with $3.2 million so far overseas, it should make a tidy enough profit and proves New Line can do comedy just as well as horror.
3)
PETER RABBIT
On the heels of a mere 28% drop in its third weekend, Peter Rabbit managed a nice $12.54 million weekend, elevating its total to $71.29 million. That means the $50 million film is doing just fine. It has almost no foreign presence at this time, but even if just scratches the surface there, it's well on its way to a $90 million or so total domestic and that should be well enough for it to cross into the black, even with marketing and such taken into account. Peter Rabbit is playing up the family crowd and should hold onto it until A Wrinkle in Time comes later in March.
4)
ANNIHILATION
I suspected that Alex Garland 's trippy and challenging sci-fi film would find it difficult to snare general audiences and, sadly, it looks like I was right. With a $11 million weekend and a poor "C" Cinemascore, Annihilation landed with a thud. At least it avoided the dreaded "F" that mother! brought in, but its total was lower than both Chappie ($13.3 million) and barely above Transcendence ($10.8 million) and taking that into account, about $30 million is the best-case scenario, but with Red Sparrow likely taking away a key adult demographic, even that may not be attainable. It did get a generally more favorable result online from audiences, so maybe it's not entirely doomed, but it faces an uphill battle and its best hope for success now lies overseas.
5)
FIFTY SHADES FREED
Despite dropping another hefty 60%, Fifty Shades Freed managed to hold on to a top five position with a $6.91 million weekend and new $89.5 million total. Better news for the closeout film in this trilogy is the $230.8 million it has made overseas - for a much better looking $320.4 million global total. That is great news for the $55 million-budgeted film, which still has a good chance of topping $100 million domestic before it ends its run. Red Sparrow is going to eat into its audience as well, but that milestone should be in hand.
Outside the top five: Weepy teen romance Every Day opened with $3.1 million in 9th place. With little in the way of buzz or marketing, that's a good enough showing and, best case scenario, it plays like Forever My Girl, which opened to $4.4 million on its way to decent $15.7 million total. With just a $4.9 million budget, Every Day just needs a little push to become profitable.
In milestone news, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri crossed the $50 million mark with a $1.22 million weekend and a new $50.1 million total. Greatest Showman earned $4.3 million for a new $160.76 million and has just days before it passes The Sound of Music ($164 million) to become the fourth best musical of all time.
Next week, Jennifer Lawrence does her best impersonation of Black Widow in Red Sparrow and we'll also get a dose of vengeance with Bruce Willis in the remake of Death Wish.
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