As expected, the super hero tentpole Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice held onto the number one spot for a second straight frame despite a large drop, however the decline was very troubling as bad word-of-mouth kicked in causing grosses to nosedive. The PG-13 actioner fell 68% from its record opening weekend to an estimated $52.4M.
Comic book movies generally attract the bulk of their sales on the first weekend (which include Thursday night pre-shows) so sophomore sessions routinely suffer large declines. Plus, BvS launched over the Easter holiday weekend which helped pump up the grosses with Good Friday being a day off for many. So a decline of 60% or a bit more would have been acceptable.
But 68% was steep. Add in the fact that there was no major competition from new releases and it leads to a shaky road ahead. Dawn’s predecessor was 2013’s Man of Steel which was directed by Zack Snyder as well. Its second weekend drop was also 68% when factoring in all Thursday night pre-shows into the opening weekend figure. But the big difference was competition as the second weekend of MoS had to deal with nearly $149M from the openings of Monsters University affecting kids and World War Z impacting action lovers. BvS faced just $12M in grosses for this weekend’s two new wide openers.
Second weekend drops for recent major super hero sequels include 59% for Avengers: Age of Ultron, 64% for X-Men: Days of Future Past, 61% for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, 58% for Iron Man 3, 57% for Thor: The Dark World, and 61% for The Dark Knight Rises. Last summer’s panned reboot Fantastic Four matched BvS with a 68% crash on the second weekend.
Last year on Easter weekend, Furious 7 smashed records with a $147.2M debut and fell 60% in the second weekend to $59.6M, a gross Justice was not able to reach on its sophomore frame. In fact since Tuesday, daily grosses for BvS have consistently fallen behind F7‘s. The path ahead should find the super hero smackdown finishing its North American run with about $345M. Though a huge amount, especially for the spring season, it does not seem that it will beat the domestic tallies for Furious 7 ($353M) or Deadpool ($355.1M and counting) which did not have the added bonus of 3D surcharges.
As North American sales were in freefall, Batman v Superman suffered even more in China where it tumbled by 78% in its second weekend to $12.4M after debuting to $57.2M when it launched day and date with the U.S. Other second weekend falls from top territories included 49% in Brazil, 58% in Germany, 69% in the U.K., and 71% in both Korea and Mexico.
The overall international weekend estimate was $85.1M from 67 markets pushing the cume to $421.4M. The global gross rose to $682.9M with offshore markets accounting for 62% of the tally. With sales eroding quickly worldwide, BvS is now on a new trajectory to end its global run in the area of $900M which is still an impressive figure for any big-budget comic book movie.
A movie that will in fact sprint past the $1 billion global box office mark is Zootopia which took second place again in its fifth weekend. The Disney smash grossed an estimated $20M and slipped a mere 17% from last weekend which was helped by the Easter holiday. This is the second best performance of all-time for a toon in its fifth weekend of play. Only Frozen did better with $28.6M on a frame that fell during the Christmas school holidays.
Zootopia‘s incredible legs have put the bunny cop pic at $275.9M to date in North America with a trajectory to $330-340M by the end of the domestic run. There is even a possibility that Zootopia ends ahead of Batman v Superman domestically. The animated hit will enjoy one more weekend without competition before the studio’s own kidpic The Jungle Book arrives on April 15.
Overseas, Zootopia cracked the half-billion mark this weekend with a $30M international frame making for a sturdy $50M worldwide weekend, off just 24%. Offshore grosses have climbed to $511.7M, driven in large part by China’s monumental $215.3M, boosting the global gross to a stellar $787.6M. Zootopia will break $800M within days and should zoom past $900M by the time it opens in Japan on April 23 where the toon is expected to do gangbusters.
In its sophomore frame, the comedy sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 dropped 38% to an estimated $11.1M giving Universal $36.5M to date. Normally this decline would be commendable, but given the lack of competition this weekend from new releases, it fell on the high end of drops in the top ten. A $55M final may occur.
The faith-based sequel God’s Not Dead 2 opened in fourth place with mild results grossing an estimated $8.1M from 2,419 locations for a soft $3,350 average. Both the gross and average were below what its predecessor generated two years ago in March 2014. The first God’s Not Dead bowed to $9.2M from just one third of the theaters for a potent $11,852 average followed by an expansion and good legs. Part 2 featured a new cast and did not build up the same excitement among its target audience.
Another faith-based film sat in the top five with Miracles from Heaven grossing an estimated $7.6M in its third round. Off just 22%, the Sony release has banked an impressive $46.8M to date which is more than three times the film’s production cost.
The underperforming sci-fi thriller The Divergent Series: Allegiant witnessed the largest drop in the top ten falling 39% to an estimated $5.7M for a cume to date of $56.4M. International grosses stand at $80.3M with worldwide now at $136.7M. The global tally should finish in the $160-170M range for Lionsgate, a disappointing figure for a big-budget franchise film with one more installment to go.
Paramount’s monster flick 10 Cloverfield Lane fared well dipping 20% to an estimated $4.8M for a new cume of $63.6M. It will end its run not far behind the $80M of 2008’s Cloverfield. The Mike Epps comedy Meet the Blacks debuted to decent results in moderate release opening to an estimated $4.1M from 1,015 locations for a $4,026 average. The R-rated film earned poor marks from moviegoers.
Helen Mirren’s military thriller Eye in the Sky expanded and jumped up to the number nine spot with an estimated $4.1M as well. The Bleecker Street release averaged $3,941 from 1,029 locations playing to a mature crowd. Total is $6.2M. The overachieving super hero hit Deadpool rounded out the top ten with an estimated $3.5M in its eighth weekend, off 29%. Fox has amassed a colossal $355.1M to date domestically and global has just hit $754.4M making it the top-grossing film worldwide from the entire X-Men franchise beating Days of Future Past. This is especially impressive since Deadpool had no China release.
A pair of films debuted well in limited release. Richard Linklater’s critically acclaimed Everybody Wants Some!! bowed to an estimated $323,000 from 19 theaters for a solid $17,000 average. Paramount expands to 50+ locations on the second weekend. Don Cheadle directs, produces, writes and stars in the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead which platformed to an estimated $123,000 from four sites for a strong $30,750 average. Sony Classics widens to 20+ locations on Friday and will be nationwide on April 22.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $121.3M which was down 44% from last year when Furious 7 opened at number one over the Easter holiday frame with $147.2M; and down 22% from 2014 when Captain America: The Winter Soldier debuted in the top spot with $95M.
