Monday Box Office Report – Angry Birds flies over Captain America; X-Men opens big internationally

Captain America: Civil War reached two huge landmarks in the last few days, by crossing the $1 billion mark globally and officially becoming the highest grossing film worldwide thus far in 2016. But even with those accomplishments, it was still a fowl weekend for the star-spangled Avenger over on the US box office charts as Captain America: Civil War was finally dethroned from the top spot by some Angry Birds. Get it? Fowl and not foul… because they’re birds… Oh I slay myself.

Which is exactly what the Sony Animation video game adaptation did to the competition this weekend past. Despite tepid reviews and an admittedly ludicrous concept – I mean was there anybody that ever played Angry Birds on their phone, and thought “Man, I wish they made this into a movie”? – the upset avians catapulted themselves to the no.1 spot by opening with $39 million. Whether this success is due to Angry Birds‘ popular place in modern culture, its star-studded comedic voice cast, or just the fact that Zootopia is 4-month old news and Finding Dory is only dropping next month, meaning there’s no other family friendly animated fare out there, is up for debate. Whatever the reason, it made money.

And so did the previously mentioned Civil War of course, as it brought in a highly respectable $33 million in its third week. Domestically, the film is sitting just shy of the $350 million mark. In comparison, Marvel’s all-time highest earner, 2012’s The Avengers, was sitting on about $365 million at the same point, and that movie had a Hulk and a Thor.

Things looked a little less rosy for Seth Rogen and Zac Efron’s Bad Neighbours 2. The R-rated comedy sequel may have been racking up some fairly good reviews and brought in a decent enough $21 million on release, but when you compare it to the first film’s $49 million opening, it is undoubtedly a bit disappointing. Internationally the film has added another $30 million to it’s coffers, but it is still well off the expected pace here.

And just to prove how wonky Hollywood economics is, the other big new release of the weekend saw Shane Black’s R-rated buddy action-comedy The Nice Guys only open to the tune of $11 million… and is being considered a success. This is mainly because this type of pulpy 70’s set detective story never brings in a big audience, so the film actually ended performing above expectations (it also still needs to open in several theatres across the US).

Meanwhile outside of the US, X-Men: Apocalypse was a huge all-around success (unlike the movie itself) as Charles Xavier and the rest of the mutant gang gave mixed reviews the finger by pulling $103 million internationally. This actually eclipses X-Men: Days of Future Past‘s $100 million international debut from 2014. The film will open in 4000 theatres in America this coming Friday, so expect that figure to spike considerably.

Let’s see what’s happening on the rest of the US top 10 chart.

• 01. Angry Birds – $39 million (NE)
• 02. Captain America: Civil War – $33 million (LW: 1)
• 03. Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising – $21.7 million (NE)
• 04. The Nice Guys – $11.2 million (NE)
• 05. The Jungle Book – $11 Million (LW: 2)
• 06. The Money Monster – $7 million (LW: 3)
• 07. The Darkness – $2.3 million (LW: 4)
• 08. Zootopia – $1.7 Million (LW: 6)
• 09. The Huntsman: Winter’s War – $1.19 Million (LW: 7)
• 10. Mother’s Day – $1.15 Million (LW: 5)

This week sees Barbershop: The Next Cut getting cut from the top 10 after a very impressive run that has seen it net $52 million off just a $20 million budget. So too Melissa McCarthy’s The Boss also bows out after pulling in $62 million off a $29 million budget.

(LW = Last Week, NE = New Entry)

This article was originally published on TheMovies.co.za

Last Updated: May 23, 2016