Captain Marvel Goes Higher, Further & Faster To Top The Weekend Box Office

The box office needed major saving and Captain Marvel came to its rescue in a big way. The latest Marvel entry dominated the weekend box office and broke some records in the process.

The latest Marvel Studios film had a huge $455 million global opening weekend. That’s the biggest global opening ever for a female-led movie. That’s also the second-largest global opening ever for a Marvel Studios film, behind only last year’s Avengers: Infinity War. Captain Marvel grossed $153.4 million in the states which makes it the seventh-largest domestic opening weekend for a Marvel Studios movie, coming in above Guardians of the Galaxy and below Iron Man 3. It is also the second-highest domestic opening weekend for a solo Marvel Cinematic Universe character debut, behind only last year’s Black Panther.

It is interesting to note exits, which show the film playing to an opening weekend crowd that was 55% male and 45% female, which, along with Black Panther and Ant-Man and the Wasp, is the smallest gender divide among films in the MCU, but nowhere near the 52% female crowd that Wonder Woman generated back in 2017. Additionally, 64% of the film’s opening weekend crowd was aged 25 or older, which ranks as one of the older audiences for an MCU film. The road ahead is pretty bright for Captain Marvel as it doesn’t really have genre competition until Shazam! opens on April 5 and it received an “A” CinemaScore so word of mouth is definitely in place for a very lucrative run at the box office.

Falling to second is How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World which grossed $14.6 million. That’s a drop of 51.1% which is another sizeable decline after it overperformed during its opening weekend. I’m guessing Captain Marvel took away some of the family audience which explains the steep fall but considering how well received the film was, I would think that the declines would be smaller despite the competition. The film has grossed $119.6 million to date in the states and the film also added another $21.7 million internationally this weekend, for an overseas gross that now totals $315.5 million for a global tally topping $435 million. Budgeted at $129 million, the film is destined to be a hit but I think the studio was probably expecting better holds on the domestic front.

Dropping to third is A Madea Family Funeral with $12.4 million. The film dropped the typical Tyler Perry 53.9% but Perry does things on the cheap and Lionsgate is more than happy with the business the film has done. The last film featuring Madea has grossed $46.2 million to date and is likely looking at a $55-60 million final gross which is just fine for all involved.

In fourth, we find The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part which grossed $3.8 million. The kid pic took another big drop of 41.4% and I’m still shocked the film hasn’t crossed the $100 million mark. It will happen this week but no one would’ve guessed five weeks ago that this film would struggle to get there when films like The Upside seemed to do it with ease. The film has grossed $97.1 million in the states and also added another $3.9 million internationally this weekend for an international total that is now $67.3 million, and a worldwide gross that has reached. $164.4 million.

Rounding out the top five is Alita: Battle Angel which grossed $3.2 million. The film dropped 55.5% and was likely kneecapped even more by Captain Marvel. The film has grossed $78.3 million domestically and has fared much better overseas where it added $11.6 million from 74 overseas markets, lifting the international total over $300 million for a worldwide tally that now stands at $382.6 million. Reports came out this weekend that the film will likely come up short in terms of earning a sequel. I have stated a few times that the film needs about $500-550 million at the worldwide box office to breakeven and that is likely not going to happen, despite its better performance from international markets.

Check out the full top ten results below: