“Black Panther” Reigns Supreme Once Again

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

February 23-25, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Black Panther $108.0 million
Game Night $16.6 million
Peter Rabbit $12.5 million
Annihilation $11.0 million
Fifty Shades Freed  $6.9 million

After delivering an opening weekend filled with a slew of broken records, nothing stopped Black Panther from dominating the box office for a second weekend. Dropping less than 50 percent, the latest film in the MCU took in another $108 million. That brings its total to an astonishing $400 million in just 10 days, only the 29th film to ever cross that milestone. That means it's already passed every movie Marvel Studios released last year, and should be the second-biggest movie in the MCU by next week. To say this is a runaway success is an understatement. At this point, it's out-grossing 2017's biggest movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Game Night debuted in second place with $16.6 million. It's been a while since an original comedy has hit theaters, and audiences turned up for this R-rated ensemble piece with glowing reviews. Word of mouth should keep it going in the weeks ahead, since most of the offerings will be grim (Death Wish, Red Sparrow, The Strangers: Prey at Night).

Peter Rabbit held on well, as it crossed $70 million. That was sadly more than Annihilation, the latest piece of mind-bending science fiction from British writer-director Alex Garland. The Oscar-nominated man behind Ex Machina didn't have the full support of Paramount, who dropped the film on Netflix outside North America and didn't seem to know how to promote a film that admittedly doesn't have a premise that can be easily explained in a trailer or commercial. Its $11 million means it's an instant flop. Still, it's one that's bound to be talked about for years to come. Fifty Shades Freed finished the top 5 with $6.9 million.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Operation Red Sea, a war thriller from China. Playing on 45 screens, the film averaged $11,333.
  • It was not a return to the glory days for recently rebooted studio Orion Pictures. A powerhouse in the '80s, it's returned as an outlet for low-budget genre pictures. Its ghostly romance Every Day debuted back at No. 9 with just $3.1 million, below even the 10th weekend of The Greatest Showman.
  • It's been a rough go for the Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. None of the three currently in release – Chile's A Fantastic Woman, Lebanon's The Insult or Russia's Loveless – have cracked $800,000. Sweden's The Square made just $1.4 million over the fall and early winter and Hungary's Of Body and Soul went straight to Netflix.

Next week:

Two grim action movies will fail to unseat Black Panther. Jennifer Lawrence's grown-up spy thriller Red Sparrow takes on Eli Roth's oft-delayed remake of Death Wish starring Bruce Willis. In tough times, I don't think audiences will respond to either movie. Red Sparrow might take second with $15 million, while I predict Death Wish will barely crack the top 5.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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