In the world of Pokemon they may have to catch them all, but they failed to catch Avengers: Endgame. Still, Pikachu did post some impressive numbers in the weekend box office.
Weekend Box Office #1 – Avengers: End Game
Still holding extremely strong at the number one spot is Endgame. In its third week Avengers made another $63 million. This is down 57% from last week, which is slightly more than expected, yet the hunt for the Na’vi continues. Endgame now sits at $723 million domestically and $1.7 billion in the foreign market. Its total global take is just short of $2.5 billion, which leaves it a mere $302 million short.
Given that it added $165 million from just this week, Endgame is setting a good pace to catch Avatar if new movies dont eat away from it too much. If it does we may end up with three leaders. We could have The Force Awakens ruling the domestic charts, Endgame topping the foreign markets and Avatar ruling the global chart. We shall see. Keep in mind Avatar had longer to catch its record with less competition and had additional releases.
#2 Pokemon Detective Pikachu
Coming in a very strong second place is the first ever live Pokemon movie. The little yellow dude brought in a hardy $58 million. This knocks off Laura Croft Tomb Raider for the #1 all-time video game movie. One would think this would do well with kids, given this is a 25 year old franchise, but Cinemscore has its rating as an A- while Rottentomatoes has it as a 63/86 with critics and fans respectively. Movie goers seem to be genuinely liking this movie.
Weekend Box Office Middle Child – The Hustle
In a very distant third place, The Hustle, brought in $13.5 million. Given this is the only bit of counter programming right now, it should be no shock that audiences were 72% female. The reviews aren’t overly favorable though. It could only manage a B- at Cinemascore and sits at a 16c/40a at Rottentomatoes.
#4 – The Intruder
The Intruder comes in at #4 with $6.6 million on a 39% decline in its second week. This may not sound like much but a two-week haul of $21 million on an $8 million budget is a solid return for the buck.
#5 – Long Shot Rounds Out the Weekend Box Office Top Five
Rounding out the top 5 is Long Shot. Only down 37% in its second week, it brought in $6 million. It too sits at about $20 million domestically. Its budget is undisclosed but i’d imagine it wast too much.
Outside the top 5
Two items of note outside the top 5. First off was the debut of Tolkien. While it had a limited release of only 1500 screens, it only pulled in $2 million. Also, the Endgame coattails seemed to have shortened as Captain Marvel finally not only falls from the top 5 after 9 weeks but the top 10 as well. It dropped 58% to $1.8 million.
NEXT WEEKEND
How next weekend shakes out will be very interesting. We have endgame and Pikachu that will want to hang onto audiences, but we have a couple films that could hit back pretty hard. A Dog’s Journey will go after the animal lovers, but then I guess you could say John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum will do the same in a more round-a-bout way. Finally the drama The Sun Is Also a Star releases to fewer screens.
