‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Rules No. 1, While ‘Overboard’ Stays Afloat and ‘Tully’ Drowns
“Avengers: Infinity War” dropped 56 percent in its second weekend to gross an estimated $112.5 million. Despite three new wide openings led by “Overboard,” the Marvel film comprised more than two thirds of all ticket sales. It looks like we’re back to the feast-or-famine trend, especially with “Deadpool 2” in two weeks and “Solo: A Star Wars Story” right after.
If the feasts like “Black Panther” and “Infinity War” keep performing, exhibitors will be happy for the short term. Those two Marvel titles took No. 1 for seven weeks so far in 2018, and have a domestic take to date over $1.1 billion. “A Quiet Place” is a very distant if impressive third, but in the top titles of 2018 it takes nos. 3-15 to equal those two Marvel movies.
“Avengers: Infinity War” has now made $450 million domestic in 10 days. Internationally it’s $713 million, with China still to come, for a combined total of $1.164 billion. By the end of next week, it should surpass all other films worldwide since “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” And depending on China, it could be the first since that smash to reach $2 billion.
Domestically, it’s now $47 million ahead of “Panther” at 10 days (that film dropped 45 percent in its second weekend. “The Avengers” reached $420 million (adjusted) and dropped 50 percent. At this point, it looks like “Infinity War” should have a domestic total between $625 million-$700 million, most likely over $650 million.
All that said, overall grosses dropped about 15 percent ($30 million) from the same weekend last year. (Last year had “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.”) Three new, somewhat offbeat titles tried their luck, with one initial success in “Overboard,” and two failures in “Tully” and “Bad Samaritan.”
“Overboard,” from Lionsgate’s Pantelion (along with MGM) is the newest English-language film starring comic Eugenio Derbez. Costarring Anna Faris, it is a remake of the 1987 Garry Marshall comedy with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. It retains the story of the original with a gender switch: Derbez plays a wealthy yacht owner who falls and loses his memory, with a cleaning woman taking advantage of the situation to pose as his wife.
It’s the best opening so far for a Derbez-lead film. The mostly Spanish “Instructions Not Included” opened to over $8 million in 2013, while the bilingual “How to Be a Latin Lover” last year started at over $12 million. This had an impressive 23 percent Saturday increase from its opening number, validating its positive A- Cinemascore.
Despite positive reviews for “Tully” and the pedigree of Jason Reitman as director and Charlize Theron as a flailing mother, the comedy failed to gain traction at 1,353 theaters and grossed only $3.1 million. Reitman has struggled in recent years: “Juno” made $184 million in 2007 and in 2009, “Up in the Air” made $100 million. Since then, he’s been mired below $20 million.
Quirky (which this is) can be tricky, as initially unsympathetic characters (Reitman’s increasing focus). It’s his third time with “Juno” writer Diablo Cody, but failed to generate similar interest. Focus chose a wide release over platform. The right move? It is increasingly the new normal; staggered releases seem reserved for guaranteed name directors who can generate sustained interest outside awards season. Here, Focus bet on reviews and counterprogramming for adults. The reality is that a film like this, whatever its release pattern, is increasingly tricky to release in theaters.
The other new wide release, horror thriller “Bad Samaritan” from “Geostorm” director and longtime Roland Emmerich producer Dean Devlin, was released via his production company. With the date, it managed to get over 2,000 theaters and a possible top 10 placement (final figures tomorrow needed to confirm). It also managed an average of under 100 ticket buyers per theater. Foreign presales and other non-domestic theatrical revenues will determine its fate.
The generally weak new film scene led to strong holds for the usual suspects. Leading the way was “A Quiet Place” (down 30 percent, now at $160 million), “Black Panther” (down 34 percent, just under $700 million), and “Rampage” (off 35 percent, $84 million domestic, on track for over $400 million worldwide).
The Top Ten
1. Avengers: Infinity War (Disney) Week 2; Last weekend No. 1
$112,474,000 (-56%) in 4,474 theaters (no change); PTA (per theater average): $450,807,000
2. Overboard (Lionsgate) NEW – Cinemascore: A-; Metacritic: 45; Est. budget: $12 million
$14,750,000 in 1,623 theaters; PTA: $9,088; Cumulative: $14,750,000
3. A Quiet Place (Paramount) Week 5; Last weekend No. 2
$7,600,000 (-31%) in 3,413 theaters (-152); PTA: $2,227; Cumulative: $159,894,000
4. I Feel Pretty (STX) Week 3; Last weekend No. 3
$4,900,000 (-40%) in 3,232 theaters (-208); PTA: $1,516; Cumulative: $37,798,000
5. Rampage (Warner Bros.) Week 4; Last weekend No. 4
$4,620,000 (-36%) in 3,151 theaters (-357); PTA: $1,466; Cumulative: $84,793,000
6. Tully (Focus) NEW – Cinemascore:; Metacritic: 76; Est. budget: $(unknown)
$3,186,000 in 1,353 theaters; PTA: $2,355; Cumulative: $3,186,000
7. Black Panther (Disney) Week 12; Last weekend No. 5
$3,146,000 (-34%) in 1,641 theaters (-9); PTA: $1,917; Cumulative: $693,000,000
8. Truth or Dare (Universal) Week 4; Last weekend No. 7
$1,885,000 (-42%) in 1,904 theaters (-516); PTA: $990; Cumulative: $38,236,000
9. Super Troopers 2 (Fox Searchlight) Week 2; Last weekend No. 6
$1,815,000 (-51%) in 2,118 theaters (-7); PTA: $857; Cumulative: $25,446,000
10. Bad Samaritan (Electric) NEW – Cinemascore:; Metacritic: 45
$1,758,000 in 2,003 theaters; PTA: $876; Cumulative: $1,758,000
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