Weekend Box Office: “Infinity War” Wins 3rd Week and “A Wrinkle in Time” Loses

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Tony Stark / Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Peter Quill / Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Mantis (Pom Klementieff)

Walt Disney’s “Avengers: Infinity War” stayed in the number one spot for the third week. It made only 46% over its second week to make $61.8 million domestically for a box office gross of $548 million and a worldwide total of $1.607 billion. It’s hard to overstate the success of the movie.

“Infinity War” now has the second largest opening in China ever behind “Monster Hunt 2”. It nabbed the eighth largest domestic release of all-time. Also, it scored the fifth largest global release and is now the first superhero movie to gross over $1 billion internationally. The movie is killing it greater than Thanos’s finger snap. Oh. Too soon?

Meanwhile, Walt Disney’s other box office hit – “Black Panther” – moved to the number nine spot. It lost about 41% over the 12th week to make $1.9 million. That gives the movie a domestic box office gross of $696 million and a worldwide total of $1.34 billion. The fact that the movie is still in the top ten after three months and is now released on home video shows how enduring the movie is.

At Walt Disney’s Q2 2018 earnings call last week they confirmed that “Black Panther” generated more than $1.3 billion at the box office and pushed the studio’s profits up 29% to $847 million. Disney’s earnings release states, “The increase in theatrical distribution results was due to the success of Black Panther in the current quarter.” #WakandaForever

Disney is having a great year. Except for one movie. Walt Disney’s same earnings release states, “This increase was partially offset by the performance of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ in the current quarter.”

“A Wrinkle in Time” is a landmark achievement in many ways from it’s cast of color to the ground-breaking director Ava Marie DuVernay. But it was a box office disaster. The movie made $33 million in its opening weekend. Compare that to the $202 million by “Black Panther” and $258 million for “Avengers: Infinity War.”

As of this weekend, it holds the number 16 spot and grossed a measly $126.8 million globally. Reports suggest the movie cost the studio between $150 million on the low end to $250 million according to Deadline. That means the studio potentially lost $20 to $100 million on the flick.

So audiences didn’t connect with the sci-fi fantasy and it cost Disney dearly. If it hadn’t been for “Black Panther” the studio’s film division could have been in real trouble.

DuVernay isn’t out of the genre though. She’s been tapped to direct the “New Gods” superhero movie for DC.

In other box office news Paramount Pictures’ “A Quiet Place” moved two positions to the number five spot. It lost only 18% to make $6.4 million for a domestic box office gross of $170 million and a worldwide total of $270 million.

Warner Bros.’s “Rampage” dropped two positions to the number seven spot. It lost about 27% over last week to make $3.4 million this past weekend. It now has a domestic box office gross of $90 million and a worldwide total of 397 million.

Warner Bros.’s “Ready Player One” now stands at the number 14 at the box office. It made less than a million this past weekend for a domestic box office gross of $135 million and a worldwide total of $573 million.

Universal’s “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is now way down in the number 31 spot in the eighth week. It lost about 18% over last week for a domestic box office gross of $59 million and a worldwide total of $288 million.

This pretty much crushes the plans for a third “Pacific Rim” movie. Back when it opened the studio had big plans. “If enough people show up to this, we’ve already talked about the plot of the third movie, and how the end of the third movie would expand the universe to a Star Wars/Star Trek-style [franchise or series] where you can go in many, many different directions…” DeKnight said. “You can go main canon, you can go spin-offs, you can go one-offs. Yeah, that’s the plan.”

Well, they didn’t show up, so bye-bye “Pacific Rim vs. Mecha-Godzilla”. It would have been awesome.

What do you think of this week’s box office news?

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