Marvel’s Thunderbolts and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners continued their box office reign this weekend, holding strong against a wave of underwhelming newcomers.
In their second and fourth weekends, respectively, the two films faced fresh competition – a horror flick, a Kerry Washington-led action film, a Josh Hartnett airplane thriller and a Shakespeare-inspired musical – but none managed to shake up the top of the charts.
Thunderbolts claimed the No. 1 spot with $33.1 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Sunday’s studio estimates – a 55% drop from its debut. Overseas, it pulled in another $34 million, pushing its global haul to $272.2 million. After just two weekends, the Walt Disney Co. release ranks as the year’s fourth-highest-grossing film, both globally and domestically.
The film is also outperforming its Marvel predecessor, Captain America: Brave New World, which plummeted 68% in its second weekend. While critical reception doesn’t always steer superhero successes, strong word-of-mouth appears to be fueling Thunderbolts’ staying power.
“The holding power of this film harkens back to the heyday of Marvel,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “The currency of long-term playability is more important than sheer opening weekends.”
The studio also has another big movie coming later this summer: The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Sinners, meanwhile, crossed the $200 million mark in North American ticket sales this weekend – a notable milestone for an original R-rated movie. It added $21.1 million domestically and $6.6 million internationally, bringing its global total to $283.3 million. Next weekend, it’s also returning to 70mm IMAX screens “by popular demand,” according to IMAX.
Warner Bros.’ other juggernaut, A Minecraft Movie, has grossed $409 million domestically and $909.6 million globally in its six weekends in theaters. It added just under $8 million to take third place this weekend, followed by The Accountant 2 in fourth with $6.1 million.
Several new movies also opened in wide release this weekend, but none seemed to break through the noise. The biggest of the bunch was Clown in a Cornfield, which earned $3.7 million – a relative high-water mark for distributor IFC – and cracked the top five.
“The second weekend in May, there is typically a bit of a lull,” Dergarabedian said. “IFC picked a perfect date for this clown to scare people into the theater.”
Shadow Force, a Lionsgate action pic starring Washington and Omar Sy from The Grey filmmaker Joe Carnahan, made $2 million from 2,170 screens. Vertical’s Fight or Flight, starring Hartnett as a mercenary on a plane full of assassins, also debuted with an estimated $2 million from 2,153 screens.
In limited release, the Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd comedy Friendship launched on six screens in New York and Los Angeles, scoring the best per-screen average of the year – $75,317 – with many sellouts reported. A24 plans to expand the release nationwide over Memorial Day.
Overall, it was a relatively quiet weekend, but thanks to A Minecraft Movie, Sinners and Thunderbolts, the year-to-date box office is up about 16% from last year, according to Comscore. Compared with 2019, however, it’s down more than 32%.
Next week, Final Destination: Bloodlines should give the marketplace another jolt before two giants debut over the holiday weekend: Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
With final domestic figures being released Monday, here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
Thunderbolts, $33.1 million
Sinners, $21.1 million
A Minecraft Movie, $8 million
The Accountant 2, $6.1 million
Clown in a Cornfield, $3.7 million
Shadow Force, $2 million
Fight or Flight, $2 million
Until Dawn, $2 million
The Amateur, $1.1 million
The King of Kings, $680,656
