Captain America: Civil War Grosses $181 Million This Weekend, Making A Lot More Money For Marvel To Use To Bribe Critics #SupportDCFilms

Considering audiences have spent over $871 million on superhero movies in the past 87 days alone, I think it's fairly apparent that superhero fatigue has set in and the genre is doomed. I mean, Captain America: Civil War made "only" $181.7 million this weekend! That's only the fifth-highest grossing weekend ever! Obviously, the MCU is doomed and audiences have given up on a style of storytelling that has existed prominently in pop culture for nearly 80 years (if one were to say the modern pop culture pop of superheroes started with the comic book debut of Superman). Well, pack it up folks.


Nah, but all snarkiness aside, Civil War got off to a strong start this weekend that was a 91% improvement over the opening weekend of the last Captain America adventure and only about 5% below the bow of last year's Avengers sequel Age Of Ultron. It's not hard to see why this one got off to such a robust start thanks to marketing that emphasized spectacle and the presence of audience favorite Tony Stark as well as the introduction of noteworthy heroes Black Panther and Spider-Man. Plus, those excellent reviews didn't hurt anything.

What'll be interesting to see is how it holds up in the weeks to come. I'd wager this one's gonna have more audiences re-watching it than, say, Batman v. Superman and the fact that it'll have to less competition than other recent early MCU May films has me thinking it could have solid holds in the weeks to come. For instance, Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age Of Ultron had to deal with newcomers opening to $60 million in their third weekends of release (Star Trek Into Darkness and Pitch Perfect 2 respectively). By comparison, there's no way either Neighbors 2 or The Angry Birds Movie hit $60 million in their debut weekends, leaving a little more room for Civil War to prosper. It's gonna be interesting to watch its box office trajectory from here on out, though with a current worldwide box office total of $678.3 million, I have a hunch Disney/Marvel are already pleased as punch with the money it's grabbing up.

Another Disney title, The Jungle Book fell into second place, dropping 50% from last weekend and grossing an additional $21.8 million for a current domestic total of $284.9 million. Look for Baloo and pals to end up with a domestic total around $335-340 million, a fantastic gross for the family movie that would make it Jon Favreau's biggest movie at the domestic box office.

Getting a boost from its titular holiday occurring over the weekend, Mother's Day went up 7.6% this weekend for a second-weekend haul of $9 million giving it a 10-day haul of $20.7 million. That's an exceptional second-weekend drop, but frankly, it doesn't make up for its poor debut weekend gross, though it does look like the film will get past $30 million in its domestic gross at least.

In fourth place, The Huntsman: Winter's War felt the cold shoulder of audiences choosing to see Captain America and friends instead thanks to a 63% plummet giving it a third weekend gross of $3.5 million and a 17 day total of $40.3 million. Meanwhile, Keanu rounded out the top five by having one of the sharpest declines in the top ten, losing a hefty 67% for a $3 million sum and a 10 day total of only $15 million.

Zootopia continued to keep on chugging in its tenth weekend of release, losing 50% for a $2.6 million gross that took its domestic haul to $327.6 million. Interestingly, that brings its domestic total above the domestic gross of another March 2016 title called Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice (which came in tenth place this weekend), which lost 73% this weekend, grossing an additional $1 million and bringing its domestic haul to $327.6 million. Finally, Ratchet & Clank also suffered a massive drop this weekend, losing 70% this weekend for a second weekend gross of $1.4 million and a ten day total of only $7 million.

On the arthouse circuit, A Bigger Splash bowed to an OK $110,000 from 5 locations, for a per-theater-average of $22,000. Last year's Palme d'Or winner, Dheepan, finally debuted in North America, grossing $22,760 at 2 locations for a per-theater-average of $11,380.

The Top 12 this weekend grossed $229.9 million, an 87% increase over the same frame from last year when another MCU feature, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, ruled the box office for the second weekend in a row.