Box Office
Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 3:00PM 
Black Panther coming for your ticket moneyWhile Captain America v. Iron Man didn't prove to be that much hotter a ringside ticket than Batman v. Superman did in its opening weekend (there's just a 15 million difference or so), the gap will surely widen. The movie's general quality will help it outlive and outperform that earlier embarrassment. One thing the two films do have in common is that the audience excitement appears to be primarily wrapped up in the new characters (Wonder Woman then & Spider-Man/Black Panther now) as opposed to the familiar faces. In related news, Bunny v Fox aka Zootopia overtook Batman v Superman this weekend to become the second highest grossing film of the year thus far.
But real question: who on earth was going to Batman v Superman THIS weekend of all weekends (it earned another million) with Iron Man vs. Captain America available to them?
TOP TEN WIDE
01 Captain America: Civil War $181.7 NEW Review
02 The Jungle Book $21.8 (cum. $285.9) Articles
03 Mother's Day $9 (cum. $20.7)
04 The Huntsman Winters War $3.5 (cum. $40.3) Review
05 Keanu $3 (cum. $15.1)
06 Barbershop: The Next Cut $2.7 (cum. $48.7)
07 Zootopia $2.6 (cum. $327.6) Reviewish
08 The Boss $1.7 (cum. $59.1) Review
09 Ratchet & Clank $1.4 (cum. $7)
10 Batman v. Superman $1 (cum. $327.2) Review
Sing Street is benefitting from great word of mouth as it expands
Other movies steered clear of opening against the third Avengers film but for Luca Guadagino's I Am Love follow up A Bigger Splash which began its platform release. Now there's an annual franchise option we could get behind. Imagine a world where each Gaudagino & Swinton release is as buzzed about and dissected as any new "Underoos!" moment from Marvel. We're here for that world, whenever it collides with this one.
TOP TEN PLATFORM
01 Sing Street $422K on 153 screens (cum. $1.1) Review
02 Green Room $343K on 470 screens (cum. $2)
03 The Meddler $294K on 53 screens (cum. $.6) Review
04 The Man Who Knew Infinity $220K on 40 screens (cum. $.3)
05 Papa Hemingway in Cuba $181K on 208 Screens (cum. $.8)
06 Compadres $170K on 212 screens (cum. $2.7)
07 Miles Ahead $131K on 141 screens (cum. $2.2) Review
08 Everybody Wants Some $110K on 131 screens (cum. $3.2) Review Con, Review Pro, Podcast
09 A Bigger Splash $110K on 5 screens NEW Articles
10 The Family Fang $104K on 52 screens Review
What did you catch this week in theaters?
Civil War, Disney, box office, superheroes
Reader Comments (11)
While Captain America v. Iron Man didn't prove to be as hot a ringside ticket as Batman v. Superman did in its opening weekend.
Wait, what? CIVIL WAR made over $180mil while BvS made $166mil.
ryan t -- ugh. my comprehension skills lately with articles. adjusting now.
Saw Sing Street. I found it utterly charming and audience i saw it with seemed to feel the same way.
Sing Street deserves a wider audience than it's getting. It's such a great crowd-pleaser. I'm hopeful the Weinsteins will give it all the support it needs.
I saw "The Meddler" and it was exactly what I expected - fun and charming fluff anchored by a great performance by an underused veteran actress. With this and "Hello, My Name is Doris", let's hope there are more movies with these women in starring roles on the horizon.
Finally caught "April and the Extraordinary World" which I loved. Was hoping for the English dub with Susan Sarandon's voice, but Marion Cotillard's French was just fine!
Saw Civil War Thursday night and Friday afternoon and I really enjoyed it. Balancing an ensemble of that size plus introducing new characters plus making sure it's still a Captain America film couldn't have been an easy task but the Russo Brothers pulled it off pretty well. Can't imagine not giving it a third watch when I have the time.
I finally saw The Jungle Book, which truly is a technical achievement of the highest order. The virtual world that the visual effects wizards created fooled me most of the time (unfortunately there's no escaping Mowgli's blue-screen "halo" in a few of those shots). My biggest quibble is that Favreau includes King Louie's song as a book number, which completely took me out of the movie because he never establishes it as a book musical to start. This is made all the more egregious by the way he so organically integrates Baloo's song into the story as a performance number. You can't change the rules like that halfway through the film.
It wasn't in the theater, but I caught the finale of The Good Wife, and I thought it was dreadful. I don't want to go into specifics because people may not have watched it yet... But I wish I'd have stopped watching the show at the end of season 5, when it was still good (and the characters' behavior seemed somewhat grounded in reality).
I saw The Jungle Book and Captain America: Civil War. The Jungle Book is technically remarkable (some of the best sound mixing I've heard in a long time), but I think the direction of the ending is a total cop out just to open the the door for possible sequels.
Captain America: Civil War is perhaps the cleanest Marvel movie yet. Meaning, the plot is tight, the characters act sensibly throughout, and the cinematic structure is very traditional. It's not my favorite by a long shot, but it is an enjoyable popcorn thriller. Elizabeth Oslen is woefully underused, but that's what happens when you can't call a mutant a mutant.
No movies for me this weekend, unfortunately. But I am keeping up with the great new seasons of Orphan Black and Broad City and the strangely bad new season of Kimmy Schmidt. Seriously, what happened to that show? I'm only 3 episodes in and the quality of the writing has taken a HUGE dive.