What did you see this weekend? I only took in Greta before getting sick but I keep meaning to get to How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. It was, essentially, the last weekend of the 2018 film year, since most of the major Oscar winners got one last expansion before they depart theaters (almost of all of them are already on DVD). They're milking that golden cow, they are! So, we thought we'd share everything in wide release and the corresponding chart toppers in limited for a really full box office picture this weekend. Ready? Deep breath. Let's go.
Weekend Box Office (Actuals)
(March 1st-3rd)
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W I D E
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PLATFORM / LIMITED
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1 How to Train Your Dragon 3 $30 (cum. $97.6) on 4286 screens
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1 🔺 Apollo 11 $1.6 on 120 screens *NEW* |
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2 🔺 A Madea Family Funeral $27 on 2442 screens *NEW*
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2 🔺 Everybody Knows $467k on 209 screens (cum. $1.2) |
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3 Alita: Battle Angel $7.2 (cum. $72.4) on 3096 screens
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3 Total Dhamaal $439k on 209 screens (cum. $1.7) |
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5 🔺 Fighting With My Family $4.6 (cum. $14.9) on 2855 screens Review
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5 🔺 Arctic $365k on 268 screens (cum. $1.6)
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7 Isn't It Romantic $4.5 (cum. $40.1) on 3325 screens
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7 🔺 Furie $156k on 14 screens *NEW*
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9 What Men Want $2.7 (cum. $49.7) on 2018 screens
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9 🔺 Never Look Away $130k (cum. $666k) Review
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10 Happy Death Day 2 U $2.4 (cum. $25.2) on 2331 screens
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10 🔺 Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion $122k on 69 screens (cum. $548k)
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13 🔺 A Star is Born $1.8 (cum. $212.8) on 1235 screens Review, Soundtracking,
Podcast, ★
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13 Extreme Job $93k on 17 screens (cum. $1.3)
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14 Cold Pursuit $1.6 (cum. $29.9) on 1765 screens
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14 Capernaum $73k on 58 screens (cum. $1.3) Interview, Podcast ★
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15 🔺 Run the Race $1.3 (cum. $4.1) on 1075 screens
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15 🔺 The Iron Orchard $61k on 42 screens (cum. $116k)
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17 Glass $892k (cum. $109.4) on 756 screens Review
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17 🔺 Birds of Passage $57k on 31 screens (cum. $158k) Review
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18 🔺 The Favourite $813k (cum. $33.2) on 742 screens Review, Podcast, That Ending ★
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18 Saint Judy $39k on 55 screens *NEW*
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In box office news...
Apollo 11 opened to great numbers for a doc. Too bad it couldn't retroactively help First Man!
Tyler Perry's 9th official entry in the Madea series opened right in the middle of where those pictures open. It's been a pretty consistent performer for Perry for 14 years now.
Alita Battle Angel has been an underperformer in the US but it looks like the global audience will save it. The expensive picture ($170 million budget + who knows how much on P&A) has so far grossed $350 million overseas. So it will probably break even in theaters eventually. But budgets that big always look too big unless a film explodes in theaters.
Transit
Outside the charts above we want to draw your attention again to Germany's Transit and Iceland's Woman at War which opened in 2 and 5 theaters respectively. Next weekend will tell if they caught at on at all but they're both really fine foreign films so take a chance on them, okay?
BEST PICTURE AFTERMATH...
For what it's worth Green Book got a big post-Oscar expansion and after a slow start (in which we repeatedly warned people not to call it a flop -- it was never going to have a huge opening weekend) it's now turned into a hit with $75 stateside and a surprising $112 million overseas. In fact, this weekend was its third best weekend ever in its 16th week in theaters.
Of the seven Best Picture nominees that got a theatrical release here's a curious note: Green Book, The Favourite, and Bohemian Rhapsody, were all bigger hits abroad then they were in the US! Vice was the only film that was far more popular at home (though it was only modestly popular here). As for the others A Star is Born, BlacKkKlansman, and Black Panther did roughly the same amount of business on both sides of the ocean.
You can see more details on the Best Picture chart where they're ranked in multiple ways.
Monday, March 4, 2019 at 10:53PM 
Reader Comments (13)
I saw Never Look Away as Oscar homework the afternoon of the awards. I was really nervous about the runtime, but it honestly flew by. Pretty messy plot and tonally all over the place, but I found it really captivating and definitely lean more positive on it.
Alita: Battle Angel was slightly better than expected. The plot is rubbish, but basically every blockbuster has a rubbish plot. (Looking at you Marvel) The action scenes were really well choreographed and creative. But man oh man that script. Cringe.
Greta was glorious trash. I had a blast and I'm still giggling about it days later.
Re-watching THE FAVOURITE and was delighted just as I was the first time I saw it. I also checked out APOLLO 11 and it was pretty good. Now I want a mashup supercut of that and FIRST MAN.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - good story, well acted, very slow but I am glad I stayed. I definitely don't like it though when I find out later it was already on NetFlix.
Leaving Neverland, part 1. This is heartbreaking. I don't know if I can watch two more hours but it serves a very important purpose to encourage victims to get treatment.
GREEN BOOK became the hit that everyone thought it would become and suddenly no more.
THE FAVOURITE could have better numbers, but the word "art" drives away a lot of people. When I recommend the movie I say "comedy", "very funny" and "amusing", never "art".
To Dust with Allesandro Nivola (as producer) doing a Q&A. Quirky, sentimental movie about grief, religion, and science. Apparently he was immersed in Haasidic culture before doing Disobedience.
Better Things, S3 E1 (one of the best shows on TV)
Finally caught up with Blackkklansman. So good.
Leaving Neverland. Very disturbing on so many levels.
I saw Cold War. Very beautiful but it left me wanting more character development.
CLIMAX is having the best per-screen average !
Saw The Heiresses. Quite nice in its small way, but I wanted just a little more. Also saw the Live from the Met HD transmission of La Fille du regiment. A great afternoon.
Feline, Art is quite vague and subjective description, it’s ofen used when people don’t know what else to say about the film and one they feel they ought to like and admire but quite don’t.
Saw Leaving Neverland and still realise there are 2 sides to the story and not to believe everything.
The Upside is the perfect example of good bad movie. Fun and after the session you feel it was worth it, laughing at some times that you shouldn't and sometimes getting emotional; just do not take it seriously. It's not Ordinary People.
Isn't it Romantic is the best Amy Schumer movie - without Amy Schumer - and Rebel Wilson is amazing. It's pretty fun.
The Favorite is funny, reminiscent of those 1970s french films that were successful in America. I agree that it should be more popular, it is very affordable.
I wonder why they didn't release Everybody Knows to qualify for the Oscars. Bardem has grabbed a surprise nomination for his work before, and no one saw Dafoe coming.
Is it really a surprise that The Favourite is doing better overseas ?