Leading into Captain Marvel's debut box office weekend, there was an unusual amount of uncertainty, at least for a Marvel movie. There were plenty of early reports about the presales being among the MCU's best, but all of that positivity was counterbalanced by very vocal frustrations from a portion of Internet users who downvoted the film and complained about it a lot on message boards. Well, the proof is in the final results, and it seems a hell of a lot of people wanted to see the finished product for themselves.
When the money is finished being counted, it looks like Captain Marvel is going to end up in the $153,000,000 range, which is a very good (although not great) performance for a recent Marvel movie. It will also probably be enough to make 10X its nearest competitor, How To Train Your Dragon 3, which feels like it might be some kind record. I don't have any real data on that though. So, if you wanna tell your friends that maybe fact, don't involve me. Regardless, you can check out the full box office table below as per Box Office Mojo...
| Movie Title | Weekend Amount | Total Amount | Chart Position Last Week | Number of Screens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Captain Marvel* | 153000000 | 153000000 | 0 | 4310 |
| How To Train Your Dragon 3 | 14696000 | 119662125 | 1 | 4042 |
| Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral | 12050000 | 45879810 | 2 | 2442 |
| The LEGO Movie 2 | 3825000 | 97109961 | 4 | 2930 |
| Alita: Battle Angel | 3200000 | 78346064 | 3 | 2374 |
| Green Book | 2488000 | 80140871 | 6 | 2097 |
| Isn't It Romantic? | 2410000 | 44154720 | 7 | 2223 |
| Fighting With My Family | 2188868 | 18656958 | 5 | 2455 |
| Greta | 2161000 | 8252735 | 8 | 2417 |
| Apollo 11 | 1301000 | 3780952 | 15 | 405 |
Obviously the real story here is Captain Marvel. $153,000,000 is a monster opening weekend, and everyone involved should be pleased with these results. Expecting a much bigger number than this would be the equivalent of expecting a movie to have one of the biggest opening weekends ever. Those expectations simply are not fair or realistic, even with a family that had as big of a budget as Captain Marvel. So, this is definitely a win. Hard stop.
That being said, it's still worth comparing Captain Marvel's results to other recent MCU movies, and analyzing that is a little more complicated. These figures are not finalized, but based on where the other films ended up, Carol Danvers and company are going to finish in either 7th or 8th place for MCU opening weekends. That puts its behind the 3 Avengers movies, behind Captain America: Civil War which was basically an Avengers movie, behind Black Panther and Iron Man 3 and very close to Guardians Of The Galaxy 2. That's really solid, and it clearly differentiates itself from franchises like Ant-Man that are on that second tier. Given these numbers and the critical (80% RT) and social media responses which have been reasonably positive, though, it's fair to say there is less buzz and perhaps less long-term potential here than with Black Panther, which opened to over $200,000,000 and 97% positive reviews.
Beyond Captain Marvel, there's not a whole lot worth talking about here. The LEGO Movie 2 still not breaking one hundred million at the domestic box office has to be considered a disappointment. It's also seeming increasingly likely that How To Train Your Dragon 3 will finish its domestic run with the lowest grosses of the entire franchise. As such, it's probably a good thing it's coming to an end.
Next week we'll get a look at Captive State, Wonder Park and Five Feet Apart, though the real story will probably be how well Captain Marvel holds. Ultimately, that percentage will likely be the strongest indicator as to how profitable the new MCU entry will prove to be.
