Well, it’s here, the biggest movie of the year. Maybe of the decade. Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Endgame took the No. 1 spot around the world, breaking just about every box office record out there, selling $350 million in the U.S. over its first three days of release and $1.2 billion worldwide.
Last year’s Avengers: Infinity War sold just over $2 billion during its release, good enough for the No. 4 all-time spot. In front of Infinity War are Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2.068 billion), Titanic ($2.187 billion), and Avatar ($2.788 billion).
Endgame will, I think, end up in the No. 2 all-time spot behind Avatar. Y’all sure do love these children’s films!
Also at the Box
Another Marvel film, Captain Marvel, took the No. 2 spot at last weekend’s box office with another $8 million in sales, upping the film’s eight-week domestic sales total to $413 million. Add in foreign sales and Captain Marvel has now sold over $1.1 billion, making it the 24th best grossing film of all-time.
R-rated horror flick The Curse of La Llorona continued to roll over its second weekend of release, bringing in another $7.5 million, upping the film’s 10-day sales total to $41 million in the U.S. and $86 million worldwide. Horror films, they sell.
Roxann Dawson’s new drama, Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz, Topher Grace, Josh Lucas and Dennis Haysbert, took the No. 4 spot at last weekend’s box office with another $6 million in sales, bringing the movie’s 10-day sales total to a surprisingly solid $26 million.
Shazam! rounded out the weekend’s Top 5 with $5.5 million in sales. So far, Shazam! has sold $346 million worldwide against a $100 million budget. In case you were wondering, yes,*Shazam! is another superhero movie in which an adult flies around in tights.
Also of note: Jordan Peele’s Us continued to sell tickets, bringing in another $1.2 million over the weekend, upping the film’s worldwide total so far to a whopping $250 million. That’s against a $20 million budget. Whoa. Jordan Peele pretty much has the keys to Hollywood right now.
New this Week
None of the studios wants to compete with Avengers: Endgame for at least another couple of weeks, and so we’re getting some odd releases from smaller studios and distributors, starting with Ben Hernandez Bray’s epic crime drama El Chicano. Looks good.
Next up is Deon Taylor’s new thriller The Intruder, starring Dennis Quaid, Michael Ealy, and Meagan Good. Reminds me of an Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman crime thriller from the late ’90s that you’d stumble across on late night cable television.
Also out everywhere is a new animated children’s film called Uglydolls from director Kelly Asbury. Uglydolls is voiced by Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monae, Wanda Sykes, Emma Roberts, Ice T, and a bunch of other B-list actors. Looks fine. Looks just fine.
And, finally, we have a film I’ve been very excited about, Jonathan Levine’s new rom-com, Long Shot, starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron. Rogen portray’s Fred Flarsky, a hipster/millennial type who takes a job as a speech writer for presidential candidate Charlotte Field, who just happens to be Flarsky’s childhood babysitter (as well as his first crush).
It’s been described as Pretty Woman 2, which I find terribly intriguing. Apparently the film was all the rage at South by Southwest, and is expected to be a surprise hit. I’ll be there on opening day, as this one smells like a new comedy classic. Look for this one to get good word-of-mouth and have strong second and third weekends.