Carl Roberts 
Earth’s Mightiest heroes continue to assert their supremacy despite a great opening weekend for Detective Pikachu
The thrilling and brilliant finale to Marvel’s Phase three, ‘Avengers: Endgame‘, retained its position at the top of the box office chart this weekend. Iron Man and company grabbed a further $63million, bringing its total to over $723.4 million domestically and $2.48billion worldwide, bringing it within touching distance of ‘Avatar‘ as the number one highest grossing film of all time and gaining its third position in the U.S all-time box office grossing top ten films. By this time next weekend, the film should have topped the chart, gaining the throne and proudly sitting at the peak that Marvel could only have dreamed of at the start of their cinematic universe.
The Avengers didn’t have it all their own way however as ‘Detective Pikachu‘ opened strongly in second place with $58million. The live-action/CGI videogame adaptation scored the highest ever opening for a film based on a gaming licence, beating out the $47.7million start Angelina Jolie starring ‘Tomb Raider‘ pulled back in 2001. With the talents of Ryan Reynolds as the voice of the title character, the film managed to pull in $112.4million globally bringing its total for the weekend to $170.4million against its budget of $150million. Critics were a bit hit and miss with the film, gaining it a 63% average on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it did make the film the first videogame adaptation to get a ‘Fresh’ certification from the site.
In the third position came another new entry to the chart, the gender swap twist on the classic 1988 comedy ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels‘ entitled ‘The Hustle‘. Opening with an estimated $13.5million domestically and $13.7million worldwide for a weekend take of $27.2million, the film didn’t con the critics, getting itself a lowly 16% Rotten Tomatoes average.
Sliding down to the fourth place, ‘The Intruder‘ lost 39% of its audience but still grabbed $6.6million, bringing its total to $20.9million against its budget of $8million. The Dennis Quaid thriller still has to open around the world so it looks like the film will certainly end up in the black by the end of its run.
Fifth place went to the Seth Rogan/Charlize Theron comedy ‘Long Shot‘ which added a further $6.1million to its coffers domestically, bringing its running total to $19.7million U.S and $22.9million worldwide against its $40million budget.
Kicking and dancing its way into a sixth-placed opening was comedy ‘Poms‘. The $10million film, about a retirement home cheerleading squad, opened with $5.1million. Starring legendary actresses Diane Keaton and Pam Grier, the film went down poorly with the critics, gaining an unremarkable 29% average.
‘Uglydolls‘ slid down to the seventh position on its second weekend of release. The animated film, based on the line of toys took a further $3.9million and bringing its total to a poor $14.2million against its budget of $45million.
Still keeping its head above water after four weeks,’Breakthrough‘ came home in the eighth place. The faith-based drama now has a running total of $37.1million after its $2.4million weekend performance.
Opening in ninth, the $20million budgeted ‘Tolkien‘ took an opening gambit of $2.1million. The Nicholas Hoult starring biopic gained a 49% critical average, not capturing the critics’ favour at all.
After ten weeks on the chart, ‘Captain Marvel‘ slips down to the tenth place. Gaining a further $1.8million, the film proudly sits on $423.7million domestic and $1.12billion worldwide. Audiences have fully embraced the Brie Larson starring comic book movie and not even a pathetic attempt by some internet trolls to have her removed from the role has managed to stop her from powering on.
Leaving us this weekend was ‘Dumbo’, ‘Shazam!‘, ‘Little’ and ‘The Curse Of La Llorona’. All four films have held great positions in the chart over the past few weeks and can hold their heads up high as they depart the top ten.
Next weekend, we are offered the family sequel ‘A Dog’s Journey‘, the dramatic ‘The Sun Is Also A Star‘ and the film that will challenge The Avengers for the top spot, a little action film calling itself ‘John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum‘. The Keanu Reeves threequel has already gained critical praise with many saying the film is the best of the trilogy (So far). Audiences seem ready to welcome the now on the run assassin back into their lives and in my opinion, will be the film that could possibly derail Earth’s mightiest heroes run at the top of the chart.
Will ‘The Boogieman’ take out Iron Man and company and claim the top position? Or will The Avengers continue their amazing run at the top of the chart on their way to becoming the biggest film of all time? Check back next week right here at The Future Of The Force to see who will triumph in the next stage of the summer blockbuster race.
Until next week.
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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!
