Carl Roberts 
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes continue to decimate the competition proving we love Endgame 3000!
Surprise, Surprise! The 22nd movie of the Marvel Universe, ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ held firm with an Iron (Man) grip to the top spot this past weekend. After breaking all records upon release last weekend, the film took another $145.8million at the U.S Box Office bringing its domestic total to $619.6million. Worldwide, the film has taken over $2.18billion, sinking ‘Titanic‘ from its second position on the biggest box office films of all time and is fast approaching ‘Avatar‘ in its quest to become the biggest film of all time, the James Cameron film from ten years ago having made $2.7billion during it’s run. Even with a 59% drop off from last week, the film still (Hulk) smashed all comers in its wake. The amazing fact is the film has hit this historic milestone in just over two weeks. The rest of the top ten combined couldn’t even come close to matching Marvel’s newest success.
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Opening in the second position was the PG-13 rated thriller ‘The Intruder‘ with an estimated $11million take. The Dennis Quaid starring film cost $8million to produce and is yet to open worldwide so is already considered to be a success. However, critics didn’t feel too thrilled with the film, gaining it a lowly 27% average on Rotten Tomatoes.
In the third position came ‘Long Shot‘ with $10million against a $40million budget. The Seth Rogan/Charlize Theron starring comedy opened poorly for such a well-received film. It gained an impressive 83% average on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has been released in several international markets so it remains to be seen if the film can turn a profit
‘Uglydolls‘, based upon the line of plush toys managed to secure a fourth-place opening. The Robert Rodriguez produced animated tale pulled in $8.5million wasn’t a fun experience for critics, gaining it an extremely poor 34% average. Considering the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Ice-T voiced two of the characters, the film will need to go some across the world if it wants to get a sniff at claiming back its $45million budget.
Rounding out the top five came Marvel’s first of its three offerings this year. ‘Captain Marvel‘ flew down three places from last weeks number two. The film gained another $4.5million, boosting its domestic take to $420.7million and $1.12 billion worldwide. The Brie Larson film is another success for Disney and Marvel this year and with ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home‘ still to open in July and to close the third phase of the Marvel Universe, Marvel will undoubtedly be the King/Queen of the year’s box office.
The PG-rated, faith-based drama ‘Breakthrough‘ came home in the sixth position. The £14million budgeted film has now made $33.2million domestically after its $3.9million weekend and $41million worldwide.
Scaring itself into the seventh position after three weeks of release, ‘The Curse Of La Llorona‘ reached out with its dead hands and grabbed a further $3.5million, bringing its running total to $48.1million in the U.S and $103.5million worldwide against a budget of $9million, again proving that Producer James Wan has the magic touch when it comes to low budget horror movies.
Another superhero came home in the eighth position this weekend. DC’s ‘Shazam!‘ managed to swoop in and collect a further $2.4million, bringing its domestic total to $135.1million and $355.5million worldwide against an estimated $100million budget. The film is enough of a success to almost certainly get the green light for a sequel but compared to ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ and ‘Captain Marvel‘ size numbers, the film seems to be the little fish in a very big superhero pond.
And that’s a pity because the film deserves better. Marvel had the advantage from the start, with a ten (11) year spate of 22 films leading to ‘Endgame‘ and gained almost universal critical success. DC, however, languished far behind and when they finally got their act together, they gave the world lacklustre and uninspiring films instead of the bright, colourful and thoroughly enjoyable slate that Marvel produced. They have picked up recently with ‘Wonder Woman‘, ‘Aquaman‘ and now ‘Shazam!‘ but I believe the damage has already been done.
Regina Hall starring comedy, ‘Little‘ gained a little (sorry!) more box office cash in the ninth position, taking another $1.4million and bringing its running total so far to $38.5million domestic and $46million worldwide on an estimated $20million budget.
Dropping down to the tenth place is Walt Disney’s live-action remake ‘Dumbo‘. The Tim Burton-directed film flapping its ears and drawing in a further $1.4 million. Six weeks since the film opened, it now stands at $109.7million in the U.S and $338.7million around the world against its $170million budget.
Deciding to become one of the dearly departed from the top ten this week was Stephen King horror remake ‘Pet Sematary‘ alongside Jordan Peele’s ‘US‘ while, returning to the artic was Disney’s documentary film ‘Penguins‘
The Joe Carnahan produced crime thriller ‘El Chicano‘ opened in limited release, gaining $700,000 from its 605 screens. The film has been described as a ‘Latin fronted old school action flick’. That’s not what the critics have called it, gaining the film a 38% average on Rotten Tomatoes.
Opening next weekend, we find ourselves being confronted by the live-action videogame adaptation of ‘Pokemon: Detective Pikachu‘ with Ryan Reynolds voicing the CGI created title character, The Nicholas Hoult starring biopic of the Lord Of The Rings creator ‘Tolkien‘ and the comedy ‘The Hustle‘ starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson in what looks to be either a female-led remake or based loosely on the classic 1988 comedy ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels‘ starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine.
Will one of these films bring the Avengers to their knees? Will Pikachu defeat Iron Man and company? Will ‘Tolkien‘ weave it’s magic and become Lord of the box office? Or will Anne Hathaway ‘Hustle‘ away the top spot from Marvel? In my personal opinion, I think they are all battling for the second position. At the moment, ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ is unstoppable. It will take a huge box office release to take away the top spot from it. And looking at the release slate, I can only see ‘Godzilla: King Of The Monsters‘ as it’s true challenger for the top spot and that is almost three weeks away from release.
Will I be wrong? Or will The Avengers prove me right? Check back again next week, right here at The Future Of The Force. I look forward to welcoming your company.
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Source: JoBlo.com
Carl Roberts is the News Editor for The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
