Lara Croft wasn’t strong enough to take down Black Panther which remained the king of the box office for the fifth weekend in a row. This is a feat that hasn’t been done since Avatar spent a fifth week at the top of the box office in 2009.
Black Panther took the top spot with an estimated $27 million. The film has a running domestic total of $605.4 million and becomes the seventh film ever to cross the $600 million mark. At this point, the film is only $18 million shy of topping The Avengers as the highest grossing superhero film of all-time on the domestic front and that’s a milestone it’s surely going to cross at this rate. Internationally the film brought in another $30 million and brings its worldwide total to $1.183 billion dollars. With this total, it’s now the fourteenth largest worldwide release of all time.
Debuting in second place is Tomb Raider with an estimated $23.5 million. This is about where some tracking had it although some suggested it would open to $25-30 million. The film actually topped the box office on Friday but Black Panther made up more ground the rest of the weekend. The debut makes it the sixth largest opening weekend for a film based on a video game (oddly enough the largest is 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with $47.7 million). The film received a so-so “B” CinemaScore so word of mouth is definitely going to be questionable. The $90 million film will have to be a huge player internationally in order to break even for the studio and it looks like it’s off to a promising start to do just that. The film made $84.5 million overseas, its second weekend of release, and brings its international total to $102.5 million.
Debuting surprisingly well in third place is the faith-based film, I Can Only Imagine, with an estimated $17 million. This is the seventh largest opening for a faith-based film and even more impressive is that the film was only playing at 1,629 locations which means it had a stellar $10,476 per theater average. The film received an “A+” CinemaScore which means word of mouth will be strong amongst its target audience. It also has the benefit of Easter coming up to continue to play strong but does face competition from other faith-based films Paul, Apostle of Christ and God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness in the coming weeks.
A Wrinkle In Time dropped to fourth place with an estimated $16.56 million. That’s a drop of 50% which isn’t great for a film aimed at kids but with a lot of kids getting out of school in the coming weeks for spring break, the film could rebound and make up some ground. Again, Disney was hoping for more, but it’s not the disaster that some trades would have you believe. The film has a running total of $61 million.
Rounding out the top five is the critically acclaimed Love, Simon which grossed an estimated $11.5 million. That’s about where most tracking had it and it looks to be a hit with its target audience because the film received an “A+” CinemaScore. If this is any indication, the film could play very well in the coming weeks and become a decent sized hit.
Check out the full top ten results below:
- Black Panther – $27 million (-33.8%, $605.4 million)
- Tomb Raider – $23.5 million (NEW)
- I Can Only Imagine – $17 milllion (NEW)
- A Wrinkle In Time – $16.56 million (-50%, $61 million)
- Love, Simon – $11.5 million (NEW)
- Game Night – $5.5 million (-29.2%, $54.1 million)
- Peter Rabbit – $5.2 million (-23.3%, $102.4 million)
- The Strangers: Prey At Night – $4.8 million (-53.8%, $18.6 million)
- Red Sparrow – $4.4 million (-47.7%, $39.5 million)
- Death Wish – $3.3 million (-48.8%, $29.9 million)
