“Higher. Further. Faster.” That’s the poster tagline for Captain Marvel, but it also became a very succinct description for the box office fortunes of Marvel’s latest this weekend past. The Brie Larson-led superhero film had faced controversy in recent times as a section of the audience took umbrage with the Oscar-winner’s comments about creating “more inclusive” press days when she noticed that she was seeing mostly white men on her press tour. Despite Larson later clarifying her statement to say that her goal was “to bring more seats up to the table” and that “no one is getting their chair taken away,” the internet still became awash with comments that “Brie Larson doesn’t want white males to see this movie”.
The backlash resulted in RottenTomatoes needing to change their rating system and even now the film’s audience score is the lowest of any Marvel Cinematic Universe film. There have even been individuals calling for boycotts of the film. In the end though, these folks made basically no difference as Captain Marvel blasted through early box office predictions to debut with a whopping $455 million worldwide.
That number may edge up later today when Disney releases official figures, but it’s already enough to make it the biggest female-led global debut of all time, and the 6th biggest overall global debut in history! As far as comic book movies are concerned, only Avengers: Infinity War’s record-setting $640.5 million, the biggest worldwide debut ever, is higher than Captain Marvel on the rankings.
The lion’s share of that $455 million comes from the $302 million Captain Marvel made in international markets, led by a huge $89 million debut from China alone. On the domestic front, which is what pundits were eyeing the closest, the blockbuster exceeded expectations there as well with a $153 million opening in the US, completely outstripping the early $100 million debut predictions.
With very little looking to put up a fight next week, Captain Marvel will retain the top spot it won this weekend past, and now the focus will be how well it holds up. An “A” Cinemascore from audiences would imply it will do damn well, and if it only has a drop in the low 50% range, then it will almost certainly be the latest entry into the exclusive billion-dollar club.
With Captain Marvel devouring all in its path, other films this weekend past had to content themselves with the scraps from the table. Last week’s top two got bumped down a spot as How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and A Madea Family Funeral made a respective $14.7 million and $12 million. The former has also kept up earning solidly overseas and is now sitting on $435.1 million worldwide.
There wasn’t much else happening on the charts as all newcomers were only niche titles in very limited openings. The only two noteworthy points were Alita: Battle Angel taking a big 55% tumble while documentary Apollo 11 more than doubled its screen real estate after its own limited opening last weekend and found itself bringing up the rear of the top 10.
Let’s see what the rest of the US box office chart looks like:
| No. | Movie Name | Weekend gross | Percentage change | US Domestic gross | Worldwide gross | Last Week's Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Captain Marvel | $153 million | NE | $153 million | $455 million | NE |
| 2 | How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World | $14.6 million | -51% | $119.6 million | $435.1 million | 1st |
| 3 | A Madea Family Funeral | $12 million | -55% | $45.8 million | $46.1 million | 2nd |
| 4 | The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part | $3.8 million | -42% | $97.1 million | $164.4 million | 3rd |
| 5 | Alita: Battle Angel | $3.2 million | -55% | $78.3 million | $382.6 million | 3rdd |
| 6 | Green Book | $2.4 million | -45% | $80.1 million | $242.2 million | 6th |
| 7 | Isn't It Romantic | $2.4 million | -46% | $44.1 million | $44.1 million | 7th |
| 8 | Fighting with My Family | $2.1 million | -53% | $18.6 million | $18.6 million | 5th |
| 9 | Greta | $2.1 million | -51% | $8.2 million | $9 million | 8th |
| 10 | Apollo 11 | $1.3 million | -19% | $3.7 million | $3.7 million | 15th |
NE = New Entry
Last Updated: March 11, 2019
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2019 at 09:09
Gonna try to watch it this weekend. Right after I have a breakfast that cost the same as a coke and popcorn combo. Might be too much food but I like a challenge.
For the Emperor!
March 11, 2019 at 09:02
I enjoyed Captain Marvel. Some of the concerns I had prior were actually plausibly explained in the movie, or were due to choosing all the serious scenes for the trailers. And even then the lack of smiles is explained with plot details as well. And the “you can’t do this” stuff I felt was era appropriate, and they did not overdo it. It does not try to make men the enemy like Ghost Busters tried to do. The slight concerns were proven to be internet trolling garbage from people who had not seen the final product. Perhaps reshoots? I will say though, the action editing could use a lot of work…
For the Emperor!
March 11, 2019 at 09:02
I hope the tags work because SPOILER WARNING:
– Lack of smiles comes from always being told to control her emotions, like a woman would be told during that period. Especially as women were not yet cleared for combat roles in the US Armed Forces.
– She does smile a lot, and throws quite a few quips.
– Trailer did not do the movie justice, and the people involved there should learn how to do their jobs.
– Her power is basically from an engine core using refined Tesseract power, AKA an infinity stone!
– We were 3 white men close to our 40’s, and we liked it
Kervyn Cloete
March 11, 2019 at 09:17
Yeah, like I mentioned in my review, the close quarter fights need work. You can see the directors have never done proper action movies before. Too close cinematography, rapid cuts, and a clear case of “Hey, that’s the stunt double!”
For the Emperor!
March 11, 2019 at 09:28
Yeah, read your review after I saw the movie. I first wanted to write “editing”, but your review made me realise it was just the “action” part that jarred me a bit 🙂
And if THAT is my only negative from the movie…then the rest did a darn good job!
Kromas
March 11, 2019 at 09:39
I’ll go watch this sometime next weekend.
Alessandro Barbosa
March 11, 2019 at 10:55
I really enjoyed this on Friday. It gets off to a strangely paced start but when it really kicks into gear it never let’s go. I think Captain Marvel as a character might suffer from the same things I dislike about Superman (being so powerful that it’s difficult to balance them with adequate threats), but the chemistry between Larson and Jackson was fantastic, Ben Mendelsohn was exceptional again and Goose is an awesome cat.
Gerhard
March 11, 2019 at 10:55
Watch it at Imax Saturday and is worth every cent. Actually looking forward to Endgame now.
Caveshen Rajman
March 11, 2019 at 11:03
Out of curiosity, do the other movies in the top 10 include China?
Geoffrey Tim
March 11, 2019 at 11:29
In this particular list, it’s just US domestic.
RinceThis
March 11, 2019 at 12:57
Haha! Suck it incels ‘it’s going to bomb’ they all shouted, rallying the cretins from their dank basements. No, it didn’t. HAHA!