Weekend Wrap-Up: Civil War's Opening Missed Mark, but still Tops Yearly Chart with $179 million

May 10, 2016

Captain America: Civil War

The Curse of Great Expectations hit Captain America: Civil War, as it had a monster opening, but still missed even the low end of expectations at $179.14 million. This is the best opening for any film this year, so Disney should be more than happy with this result. Overall, the box office pulled in $237 million, which is 121% more than last weekend. Granted, it is the official start of summer, so an increase like that is to be expected. More importantly, it is 80% higher than the same weekend last year. Even if you compare this weekend to the start of summer last year, 2016 still comes out ahead, albeit by a much smaller margin of 1.8%. Year-to-date, 2016 padded its lead, which grew to 7.0% at $3.77 billion to $3.53 billion.

Captain America: Civil War opened with $179.14 million over the weekend. This is the best opening for any film released in 2016 so far, topping Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice by just over over $13 million. More impressively, while BvS had a better opening day, Civil War showed much better legs. This shouldn't be surprising, given its reviews, but the Fanboy Effect can sometimes override reviews. Civil War should quickly rise up the yearly chart and overtake Deadpool before too long for the biggest hit of the year.

The Jungle Book held on better than expected with $24.49 million over the weekend for a four-week total of $287.60 million. At this pace, it will have no trouble becoming the fifth film of the year to reach $300 million and will quickly catch up to Zootopia for third place for the year. (Captain America: Civil War will likely overtake it before it manages either feat.)

Mother's Day rose 8% earning third place with $9.01 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $20.73 million. Given its reviews, there are a lot of mothers thinking about disowning their kids today.

The Huntsman: Winter's War only managed to pull in $3.95 million over the weekend pushing its total to $40.73 million in total. It has made more than $100 million internationally, so it is not a complete bomb on the worldwide market.

Keanu was right behind with $3.29 million over the weekend and $15.31 million after two weeks of release. It will hit $20 million domestically, which is more than it cost to make. It will need help on the home market to break even. Its reviews make that a possibility.

Ratchet and Clank was the only film in the sophomore class not in the top five. It fell 70% to just $1.46 million over the weekend for a ten-day total of $7.09 million. It felt like a Direct-to-Video release and should do better on the home market. It could hardly do worse.

On a final note, Zootopia did in fact overtake Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on the yearly chart. There were some who thought BvS would be the biggest hit of the year. Now it very likely won't even be in the top five by the end of summer. It is no surprise that Warner Bros. is shaking things up with Ben Affleck taking a more prominent role while Zack Snyder is being pushed out.

- Captain America: Civil War comparisons
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice vs. Zootopia

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Deadpool, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, The Jungle Book, Captain America: Civil War, Zootopia, Ratchet and Clank, Keanu, Mother’s Day, Ben Affleck, Zack Snyder