Shazam!
That was the magical word Warner Bros. used at the Box Office this weekend as the original Captain Marvel (yeah I remember the 70’s Saturday AM series) flew to an outstanding $53 million and a worldwide gross of $158.6 million.
With a reported production budget of $80 – $100 million, the film has virtually doubled its production budget in a single weekend.
More impressively, according to Comicbookmovie.com, the film only suffered a 4% drop from Friday to Saturday, indicating a strong word of mouth. Shazam! should prove to be extremely profitable for WB as it adds to its total in the coming weeks.
It will have to front load much of its box office, because when Avengers: End Game hits on 4/28, the box office as we know it will cease to exist. At least for that weekend.
For superhero films, the Shazam! opening is comparable to the 2015 Marvel film Ant-Man, which opened to $57.2 million. Like the Paul Rudd-vehicle, Shazam! earned an A from CinemaScore.
Sometimes dead is better and sometimes it lands you in the second spot. Pet Sematary earned $25,000,000 on its opening weekend, but expect a steep drop next weekend. Critics were barely positive about the film giving it a 61% RT score but audiences gave the Paramount film a C+ on CinemaScore.
Disney’s Dumbo took the No. 3 spot with $18.3 million, which would be a 60 percent drop from its $45.9 million opening. Rounding out the top five is Universal’s Us, will pass the $150 million domestic mark in its third weekend with $14.5 million; and Captain Marvel, which passed $1 billion worldwide this past week, will add $12.5 million to bring its domestic total to $374 million.
Domestic Box Office
# Title Distributor Name Weekend Total # of Locs Loc Avg Cume Total
1 Shazam! Warner Bros. $53,450,000 4,217 $12,675 $56,775,000
2 Pet Sematary Paramount $25,000,000 3,585 $6,974 $25,000,000
3 Dumbo Disney $18,224,000 4,259 $4,279 $76,271,489
4 Us Universal $13,813,000 3,512 $3,933 $152,395,995
5 Capt Marvel Disney $12,682,000 3,573 $3,549 $374,133,563
6 Best Of Enemies STX Entertainment $4,500,000 1,705 $2,639 $4,500,000
7 Five Feet Apart Lionsgate $3,700,000 2,484 $1,490 $41,591,252
8 Unplanned Pure Flix $3,200,000 1,516 $2,111 $12,467,510
9 Wonder Park Paramount $2,040,000 2,281 $894 $41,980,513
10 How To Train
Your Dragon:
The Hidden World Universal $1,985,000 1,928 $1,030 $156,692,245
Source: ComScore
With a 93 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, Shazam! has found the excellent word of mouth it will need to keep audiences coming in before the release of Avengers: Endgame in three weeks.
Source: Comicbookmovie.com
