Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has dominated the holiday weekend box office, earning $104 million for its opening weekend and first place on the top ten list. While critics have panned it, earning the film a Rotten Tomatoes score of 47% rotten, audiences are rushing to the theaters and have given it an 84% audience score.
It seems that Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his merry band of Pyms (Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas and Michele Pfeifer) are enticing enough to get butts into theater seats this weekend. Some publications have reported that the movie, estimated to be budgeted at $200 million has “flopped.” Still, while it’s definitely not the highest-grossing MCU opening weekend, it’s certainly not the worst:
Iron Man opened at $98,618,668
Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened at $95,023,721
Guardians of the Galaxy opened at $94,320,883
Spider-Man: Far from Home opened at $92,579,212
Thor: The Dark World opened at $85,737,841
As a matter of fact, this is the highest-grossing opening weekend for Ant-Man. The first Ant-Man earned $57 million its opening weekend and Ant-Man and the Wasp earned $76 million at the box office during its opening weekend. The Ant-Man movies have only been increasing in ticket sales with each sequel.
Audiences still haven’t gotten enough of Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water which has worked its way right back up to second place, earning $6.1 at the box office in its 10th week in theaters, a drop of only 15% from last weekend’s results.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance finished in third place with $5.5 million, a decline of 33% from last weekend despite the fact that it expanded to play in more than twice as many locations as it had during its opening week. While Ant-Man has increased revenue with each sequel, the opposite is true for Magic Mike. The original Magic Mike grossed $114 million domestically, followed by the sequel Magic Mike XXL which earned $66 million. After this weekend’s numbers, Magic Mike’s Last Dance will wind up with only an estimated $25 million cumulative, with a production budget of $45 million.
Finishing in 4th place was Puss In Boots: The Last Wish that added yet another $5.3 million to its total and dropped only 6% from last weekend, yet moved up the top ten list from 5th place. The running cumulative total now for the DreamWorks animated film is $166 million. Rounding out the top five is Knock At The Cabin that “scared” up another $3.9 million at the box office and dropped 28%, but also moved up a spot from the previous week.
Paramount’s 80 for Brady slipped from 4th to 6th place with a 38% drop and earned $3.6 million in its third week in theaters. Remarkably, Paramount’s re-release of Titanic is still in the top ten list for the second week it’s been out, but slipped from 4th place down to 7th.
Open Road’s noir crime thriller Marlowe starring Liam Neeson, in the role of the famous private detective Philip Marlowe was only able to generate $1.9M, which landed it in 8th place on the box office top ten list. The movie is directed by Neil Jordan and also stars Jessica Lange, Diane Kruger and Alan Cumming. The critics were pretty brutal and rated it 24% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences were almost equally disappointed, with a 38% rating.
Sony’s Missing and A Man Called Otto each fell one spot down the top ten list with A Man Called Otto taking the #10 spot after suffering a $39% drop in ticket sales.
REELated:
1. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Disney) NEW – Cinemascore: B; Metacritic: 48; Est. budget: $200 million
$104,000,000 in 4,345 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $23,936; Cumulative: $104,000,000
2. Avatar: The Way of Water (Disney) Week 10; Last weekend #2
$6,118,000 (-15%) in 2,675 (-390) theaters; PTA: $2,287; Cumulative: $657,076,000
3. Magic Mike’s Last Dance (WBD) Week 2; Last weekend #1
$5,525,000 (-33%) in 3,034 (+1,538) theaters; PTA: $1,821; Cumulative: $18,115,000
4. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Universal) Week 9; Last weekend #5; also on PVOD
$5,260,000 (-6%) in 3,012 (-215) theaters; PTA: $1,746; Cumulative: $166,076,000
5. Knock at the Cabin (Universal) Week 3; Last weekend #6
$3,900,000 (-28%) in 2,601 (-1,056) theaters; PTA: $1,499; Cumulative: $30,372,000
6. 80 for Brady (Paramount) Week 3; Last weekend #4
$3,600,000 (-38%) in 3,119 (-820) theaters; PTA: $1,154; Cumulative: $32,248,000
7. Titanic (Paramount) REISSUE (week 2); Last weekend #3
$2,290,000 (-66%) in 2,132 (-332) theaters; PTA: $1,074; Cumulative: $(adjusted est.) 1,513,000,000
8. Marlowe (Briarcliff) NEW – Metacritic: 41
$1,910,000 in 2,281 theaters; PTA: $837; Cumulative: $2,670,000
9. Missing (Sony) Week 5; Last weekend #8
$1,725,000 (-32%) in 1,516 (-799) theaters; PTA: $; Cumulative: $
10. A Man Called Otto (Sony) Week 8; Last weekend #7
$1,600,000 (-39%) in 1,725 (-1,099) theaters; PTA: $928; Cumulative: $60,222,000
