Box Office: ENDGAME Stomps on Ryan Reynolds’ POKÉMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU

Welcome to the Beat’s Weekend Box Office Recap!
For a few hours last week, it seemed like Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, featuring the voice of Ryan Reynolds, might come out on top this weekend. Nope.
Once again, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame dominated, as the Marvel epic added another $63 million this weekend, down 57% from last week, according to Sunday estimates. Besides remaining in first place, Endgame has brought its domestic gross to $723.5 million, officially making it the highest-grossing Marvel Studios movie of all time, both domestically and overseas, where it has already grossed $1.7 billion.
Domestically, Endgame is also now the third highest-grossing movie of all time behind the $760.5 million made by James Cameron’s Avatar and Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ $936.6 million. With $2.48 billion grossed worldwide so far, Endgame only needs another $300 million  to natch the current record for all-time box office champ, which is also Cameron’s Avatar with $2.79 billion.
Meanwhile, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu opened last week for Thursday previews that brought in a decent $5.7 million before its nationwide release into 4,202 theaters Friday. After topping the box office Friday with $20.7 million, Pokémon ended the weekend with an estimated $58 million. That’s above the studio’s projection but below my own prediction, and maybe that’s the best it could do with its mixed reviews and premise  better suited for kids.  Co-starring Justice Smith from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Bill Nighy, Kathryn Newton and Ken Watanabe, the idea of putting Ryan Reynolds’ voice into an adorable Pikachu body did help the movie receive a solid “A-” CinemaScore, which means it could build some word-of-mouth business.
Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson teamed for The Hustle, a blatant Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake from United Artists Releasing (aka MGM), which opened in third place with $13.5 million in 3,007 theaters. Its $4,500 per theater average was clearly helped by the Mother’s Day holiday Sunday as UAR projected its business to pick up after a $4 million opening on Friday. Its own “B-” CinemaScore makes it seem as if audiences agreed with the critics.
Two of last week’s releases, Screen Gems’ The Intruder and Lionsgate’s Long Shot, held up well in their second weekends, taking $6.6 and $6.1 million respectively for fourth and fifth place. The Seth Rogen-Charlize Theron comedy had a slightly smaller 37% drop, but the Dennis Quaid thriller still remained slightly ahead in their second weekends with both making roughly $20 million so far, give or take.
On the flipside, it was another disappointing weekend for STXfilms as its Diane Keaton-led ensemble comedy Poms bombed with just $5.1 million in 2,750 theaters ($1,858 per theater) to take sixth place. STX also projected a fairly large Mother’s Day boost. On top of that, STX’s UglyDolls movie, which opened poorly last week, took a 54% tumble in its second weekend to take seventh place with $3.9 million and an unimpressive 10-day total of $14.3 million. STX started its year with the $100 million grosser The Upside, which made it seem like the relatively young distributor was turning things around, but it has started its summer off rather poorly.
Fox Searchlight’s biopic Tolkien, starring Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins, opened in ninth place with $2.1 million in 1,495 theaters or $1,440 per theater. Basically, three of the four new movies disappointed, and only The Hustle exceeded any expectations over the weekend.
As far as limited releases, the Bollywood sequel Student of the Year 2 opened with $438,000 in 190 theaters ($2,305 per theater) and the doc The Biggest Little Farm (NEON) made $101,000 in five New York and L.A. theaters or $20,202 per venue. IFC Films’ Charles Manson film Charlie Says, starring Matt Smith, failed to make much of a mark, grossing just $39,000 in 39 theaters or $1,000 per site.

This Week’s Top 10:

Rank Last Week Rank Movie Studio Weekend Gross % Change Total Gross
1 1 Avengers: Endgame Marvel/Disney $63.1 million -57% $723.5 million
2 New Pokémon: Detective Pikachu Warner Bros. $58 million N/A $58 million
3 New The Hustle U.A. Releasing $13.5 million N/A $13.5 million
4 2 The Intruder Screen Gems $6.6 million -39% $21 million
5 3 Long Shot Lionsgate $6.1 million -37% $19.7 million
6 New Poms STXfilms $5.1 million N/A $5.1 million
7 4 UglyDolls STXFilms $3.9 million -54% $48.1 million
8 6 Breakthrough 20th Century Fox $2.5 million -37% $135.2 million
9 New Tolkien Fox Searchlight $2.1 million N/A $2.1 million
10 5 Captain Marvel Marvel/Disney $1.8 million -58% $423.7 million

This weekend’s top 10 pulled in an estimated $162.7 million, which was up from last year when Avengers: Infinity War was #1 for a third weekend with $62 million (very close to Endgame‘s third week), followed by the Melissa McCarthy comedy Life of the Party and the thriller Breaking In with just over $17.5 million each.
Check back on Wednesday for The Beat‘s Box Office Preview for the coming weekend, which will include Keanu Reeves’ John Wick Chapter 3 and Universal’s A Dog’s Journey.

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