Guardians Vol. 2 easily retains while King Arthur gets stuck in stone
There was little doubt Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was going to repeat atop the box office. The real question was how far would it drop from its $146 million opening. And secondly, how would the rest of the competition fare?
Vol. 2 had a 57 percent drop from its opening weekend. That’s much better than the 69% drop of Batman v Superman’s second weekend and Suicide Squad’s 67 percent drop. As far as its second weekend from recent Marvel films, Doctor Strange had an impressive 48 percent drop, but had a smaller opening of $85 million. Vol. 2 fared better than Captain America: Civil War, which had a 59 percent drop although it opened to a mighty $179 million.
2. Snatched – $17.5 million (debut week) Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn’s comedy had a solid opening for its counter programming Mother’s Day effort. Budgeted for a meager $42 million, Snatched should quickly earn a profit over the next couple of weeks. It helps that more of the upcoming releases are geared toward summer blockbuster craving audiences.
This clocks in lower than Schumer’s breakout starring role in Trainwreck. That comedy opened with a lot of buzz to $30 million en route to a $110 gross. Snatched likely won’t come close to matching that total, but this is still a good sign for Schumer’s box office appeal.
3. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword – $14 million (debut week). The Guy Ritchie directed film holds the distinction of being the summer’s first major misfire. With a $175 million budget, this is a major bomb. That’s unfortunate as I really liked it and thought it had some terrific potential as a franchise with multiple sequels. Clearly that won’t be the case.
Is it just a case of audiences moving past King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in the comic book movie age? Or is it that the right filmmaker has yet to try their hand at the property? Maybe a little of both, but the odds of another attempt at King Arthur any time soon is unlikely.
4. The Fate of the Furious – $5.3 million ($215 million, 5th week) It’s crazy that domestically the film has yet to make up its $250 million budget. That’s not that big a deal considering its worldwide box office presence. Worldwide, it’s now No. 12 on the all-time list at $1.193 billion trailing fellow 2017 arrival Beauty and the Beast ($1.206 billion).
Fate is the fourth film in the eight movie franchise to cross the $200 million mark domestically and trails only Furious 7 ($353 million) and Fast & Furious 6 ($238 million)
5. The Boss Baby – $4.6 million ($162.3 million, 7th week) So far the year’s biggest animated hit continues to attract a nice audience. Mother’s Day weekend might also be helpful for this film with its family-focused premise.