It’s going to be an easy win for Avengers: Infinity War this weekend and will allow it to spend a third week at the top of the box office. It’s also going to make waves internationally in a big way because it’s finally opening in China and it’s bound to make its worldwide box office numbers soar.
That doesn’t mean that new releases, Life of the Party & Breaking In, will be slackers. Both are female-driven movies and those play well over Mother’s Day weekend. Party will be seeking the comedy moviegoers while Breaking In will be going after those who are looking for a thrill with a kickass female lead.
Avengers: Infinity War has the action crowd to itself and that should give it a pretty lucrative third weekend at the box office. This weekend will likely determine where its final gross will end up (some think it can make it to $700 million domestic if it hold well here). It will also benefit from Memorial Day weekend, even though the second weekend of Deadpool 2 will be in play and Solo: A Star Wars Story will be taking off that weekend. Deadline reported yesterday that the film is headed towards a profit of $600 million which is probably making everyone at Disney and Marvel smile real big this week. I’m predicting a third weekend of about $60 million.
Life of the Party should pull ahead of Breaking In this weekend but don’t be surprised if their positions flip. Life of the Party reteams McCarthy for the third time with her husband and fellow Groundling alum Ben Falcone after Tammy and The Boss in a movie about a middle-aged mom, who after being abruptly divorced, returns to college to complete her degree.
It has been two years since Melissa McCarthy was the lead of a comedy on the big screen (The Boss, $23.6 million, $63.2 million domestic) and Ghostbusters, $46 million, $128.4 million domestic). Comedies have been hit or miss since her last foray but the last few months have seen some pop like Daddy’s Home 2, Game Night & Blockers. The film has a rotten score of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes but McCarthy comedies have overcome bad reviews before and led to solid box office. The film also has a PG-13 rating which makes it much more accessible. I’m predicting about $21 million for the weekend.
Breaking In, which has Will Packer behind it, may just overperform because that’s what his movies tend to do. Directed by James McTeigue and starring Gabrielle Union and Billy Burke, Breaking In follows a woman who protects her family during a home invasion. Packer’s previous thriller, No Good Deed starring Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson opened to $24.2 million, however, it was during a non-competitive time at the September 2014 box office. As of this writing, Breaking In has a rotten score of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes but Packer’s films are critic-proof so that won’t matter much this weekend. I’m predicting about $17 million this weekend but I wouldn’t be surprised if it surged a bit higher.
