Box Office: "Infinity Wars" tops "The Force Awakens" for Most Opening Weekend Loot
Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 10:44PM by Nathaniel R
| Weekend Box Office (April 27th-29th) |
|
| W I D E 800+ screens |
L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide |
 Infinity War |
 Disobedience |
| 1. 🔺 Avengers: Infinity War $250 NEW |
1. Beirut $257k on 237 screens (cum. $4.5) |
| 2. A Quiet Place $10.6 (cum. $148.1) REVIEW, SECOND OPINION, SCREENPLAY | 2. 🔺 Disobedience $241k on 5 screens NEW REVIEW |
| 3. I Feel Pretty $8.1 (cum. $29.5) |
3. 🔺 Lean on Pete $240k on 167 screens (cum. $665k) REVIEW |
| 4. Rampage $7.1 (cum. $77.9) |
4. Death of Stalin $210k on 150 screens (cum. $347k) REVIEW |
| 5. Black Panther $4.3 (cum. $688) PODCAST |
5. 🔺 The Rider $188k on 37 screens (cum. $357k) REVIEW |
Avengers Infinity War is gigantic in just about every way and the audience responded in kind gifting it the biggest opening weekend of all time. Yes, even the super long awaited return of the Star Wars franchise The Force Awakens fell to Marvel Studio's magical gloved might... The studio is currently saying that Avengers beat the record by about $2 million dollars but Marvel tends to underestimate their opening weekends in a bit of a humble brag way so expect the margin to increase a bit.
Elsewhere at the multiplex...
 Ready Player One |
 Kings |
| 6. Super Troopers 2 $3.6 (cum. $22) | 6. 🔺 Kings $173k on 214 screens NEW REVIEW |
| 7. Truth or Dare $3.2 (cum. $35.3) | 7. 🔺 Finding Your Feet $123k on 102 screens (cum. $1.1) REVIEW |
| 8. Blockers $2.9 (cum. $53.2) |
8. The Leisure Seeker $104k on 117 screens (cum. $2.8) |
| 9. Ready Player One $2.4 (cum. $136) REVIEW | 9. 🔺 Grace Jones: Bloodlight... $41k on 19 screens (cum. $182k) REVIEW |
| 10. Traffik $1.6 (cum. $6.7) | 10. 🔺 Let the Sun Shine In $40k on 2 screens NEW REVIEW |
| 🔺 = new or expanding its theater count numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo |
|
Well not much else was happening since Avengers took in more than 80% of all available box office dollars but at the arthouses Rachels Weisz and McAdams forbidden love affair in Disbodience had a strong opening with the second best per screen average after The Avengers albeit on only 5 screens. The weakest debut was the Halle Berry / Daniel Craig Los Angeles riots movie Kings which is, sadly, a terrible movie. I can't imagine what happened since the director's debut (Mustang) was so good it was Oscar nominated for best Foreign Language Film and made my personal top ten in its year.
Mostly it was a rough weekend for everyone but Marvel. Black Panther was buoyed by the incoming Marvel behemoth so it fell only an incredible 11% in its 11th weekend; as we suspected last week, some fans were doing a double feature. What this enormous weekend means for The Avengers overall gross remains to be seen. Since it's hard to imagine it having the staying power and repeat business of Black Panther (given that it's a less self-contained story, beginning in media res and ending on a cliffhanger) but at this point we expect it will end up as #3 of all time for Marvel after Black Panther and the original Avengers.
What did you see this week? I caught Avengers Infinity War (we'll discuss tomorrow) and a few Tribeca Festival films on which more soon as we finish our festival coverage.
Reader Comments (13)
I am so tired of Marvel. Please make it stop.
John Cassavetes' Husbands (excellent film though it meanders at times) and Avengers: Infinity War.
I've had some time off because my Mum passed away last week and watching movies helps me 1) relax and 2) process my emotions. I comfort watched MAMMA MIA! because it was something my Mum loved too and because ABBA. Sometimes you just need a cinematic hug.
At home I also enjoyed the stylishness of ATOMIC BLONDE and found JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE surprisingly fun.
I ventured out to LAST FLAG FLYING, which has only just opened in Aus. I liked the performances and found all that talking soothing to my state of mind but also a little dull.
I guess it was the week I had but I hated AVENGERS: INFINITE WAR, particularly the ending. It was especially disappointing coming after two of my favourite Marvel films - THOR: RAGNAROK and BLACK PANTHER.
I saw two films recently. One was released not too long ago but one came out some time back.
Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool was quite fun although the melodramatic turns the film went into did not really all work with me. Jamie Bell is good and convincing as a young man smitten to a Hollywood royalty. Annette Bening is effective in most of her scenes and she uses this kittenish voice that made me wonder if aging actresses expressed themselves this way through the years or it was just Bening's artistic choice. Bening was alright but the film itself did not really transcend the mawkish premise of the narrative. Vanessa Redgrave's cameo was refreshing and she reminded me of the genius ways she can inhabit a small role and make it breathe and live like it is an authentic and organic living thing (Foxcatcher and Atonement come to mind). That gag about Manila and Australia overstayed its welcome and bogged down the film a bit. I wish the film was able to tap the full extent of the talents that's on board, having seen what Redgrave can do in a single scene. Still glad I saw it and I thought Bening was better than one of the nominees for lead actress this year.
I thought I have seen Best in Show until I found out I haven't seen all of it completely. It was loads of fun and truly funny especially the scenes involving Christopher Guest and his convincing North Carolina accent. The film was hilarious overall and some parts were uproariously so. It didn't feel dated at all to me. Parker Posey's shrillness actually made me laugh out loud more than Eugene Levy's two left feet. But the best part has to be the dogs themselves -- so adorable, so beautiful. Even as the supposed sexual magnetism of Catherine O'Hara within the films' diegesis starts to become weary, O'Hara remains endearing. Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge were also best in show.
I saw Outside In at the DC Film Fest. Jay Duplass is really great. I love what he does. I think he's a great actor. But the script is too thin. It just sets up one scene after another for Duplass to get all weepy and go to pieces.
LAST FLAG FLYING (this Linklater fanboy gives it the thumbs up) and SUMMER 1993 (such a beautiful film, and it really got to me with it's very last scene). As well as the original J-horror DARK WATER.
I saw Julius Caesar, one of the National Theatre Live broadcasts. Ben Whishaw played Brutus and he was fantastic. It's always a little strange (for me) to watch filmed versions of stage productions, but I really enjoyed the staging and the acting.
I also watched Una with Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn-- I'd seen the stage version and while I'm not sure that the film entirely worked for me, I did think the acting was quite good.
I saw Avengers. And I would venture to say that its ending was not a cliffhanger. It was just the opposite of what we were expecting. It was entertaining but repetitive in several characters’ motivations.
I gave my opening weekend dollars to Disobedience which was absolutely stunning. I was completely enraptured with it, and it has only gotten better for me the more I've thought about it. McAdams was easily best in show, but everyone in it was great (I fear Alessandro Nivola's work will remain completely unsung even though it's quite brilliant), and the final shot felt like one for the ages.
And then I saw I Feel Pretty, which did not bother me nearly as much as I was expecting. Michelle Williams gives a GENIUS comic turn as Schumer's boss, and I was honestly impressed with how the message and how the story was handled. It's not great, and there are a few queasy moments, but overall I thought the film rode out the problems inherent in the premise REALLY well. At the very least, it was an enjoyable time-waster.
I saw Queen Christine and it was such a delight to see Garbo in such beautiful scene when she is memorizing the room. Wow! I remember I though 'they do not act like that anymore' at that moment. Superb
Saw two movies on DVD. Thor: Ragnarok was really fun and inventive--and hilarious in moments. I don't know why Cate didn't get better notices--she's really good in this. And I think it's time we started calling Chris Hemsworth a movie star. He's really come into his own in a big way. Sorry, still thinking about those guns.
Also saw Don't Breathe. Very good entry in the neo-horror movement. I also liked the moral ambiguity throughout.
I saw the excellent documentary "Happy Valley" on Netflix which is much better than the dramatization of the Penn State sex scandal "Paterno" on HBO. "Happy Valley" does a better job of showing how evil Jerry Sandusky was- the HBO movie at times is more like a star vehicle for Al Pacino as the Coach Paterno who is actually the least interesting person in the story. It's fascinating to contrast and compare the actual people and evens to the weaker made for tv script treatment. In the HBO movie Sandusky is a minor figure- most of the screen time is devoted to Pacino's Paterno acting as he only cared about football not about kids getting raped in the showers.
The Rider - I recommend everyone to watch it. What a fantastic perfect movie.