Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* lorded over a relatively quiet weekend at the domestic box office, earning $33.1 million for a 10-day North American tally of $128.5 million and $272.2 million globally.
The ensemble pic led by Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan fell a respectable 55 percent from its opening weekend, compared to an average decline of 57 percent for a title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and far less that more recent MCU films. Earlier this year, Captain America: Brave New World tumbled more than 65 percent.
Thunderbolts* boasts both enviable reviews and audience scores, which is sparking strong word-or-mouth. And in a savvy stunt to whip up additional interest, Disney’s marketers revealed after the movie opened that the asterisk refers to the unofficial title The New Avengers, since many of the characters will appear in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday.
Directed by Jake Schreier, the film brings together a band of dysfunctional outsiders — and lesser-known comic book characters — who discover their potential to be heroes when working together. In addition to Pugh (Yelena Belova) and Stan (Bucky Barnes), the movie features Wyatt Russell (John Walker), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Lewis Pullman (Bob), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (CIA director Valentine Allegra de Fontaine).
With no new event pic on the marquee, the weekend belonged to holdovers all the way around.
Warner Bros. had plenty to celebrate as Ryan Coogler’s sleeper hit Sinners crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office for a worldwide total of nearly $300 million. In a second victory, A Minecraft Movie zoomed past $900 million in global ticket sales.
Sinners came in second in its fourth weekend with a huge $21.1 million for a North American total of $214.9 million through Sunday and $283.3 million globally. The supernatural vampire pic starring Michael B. Jordan is another coup for Coolger, the bold and audacious filmmaker behind the Black Panther and Creed franchises. (Jordan has starred in all five of his movies.)
A Minecraft Movie — the second-top-grossing video adaptation of all time behind Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, not adjusted for inflation — placed third in its sixth weekend with $8 million for a domestic haul of $409 million and $909.6 million globally.
Amazon MGM Studios’ The Accountant 2, now in its fourth weekend, enjoyed a fourth-place finish with $6.1 million for a solid domestic total of $50.9 million.
Among a handful of smaller titles hoping to drum up business on a nationwide basis, IFC’s slasher pic Clown in the Cornfield fared the best in opening to $3.7 million, enough to round out the top five. Lionsgate’s Shadow Force and Vertical’s Fight or Flight both opened in the $2 million range (the order will be determined Monday morning when final weekend grosses are tallied.)
“This relatively quiet weekend is just the calm before the proverbial storm,” says Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian in referencing such upcoming May titles as Final Destination: Bloodlines, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch and Karate Kid: Legends. He adds, “It’s looking like it’s going to be an epic month of May for movie theaters.”
There was action at the specialty box office, thanks to A24’s critically acclaimed Friendship, which opened in six cinemas. The Tim Robinson-Paul Rudd bromance scored a dazzling per theater average of $75,137, which A24 says is the best showing of the year so far for an indie title opening in platform run.