Films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have come to be recognized as cinematic juggernauts, but not everything can be a near-$100 million opener. Ant-Man, somewhat of a lesser known Marvel property when it comes to general audiences, ended up with the second smallest opening weekend for any of the twelve MCU properties to date, opening with $58 million, just a couple million ahead of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which hardly seems like an MCU movie at this point.
That said, the audience still loved it, giving it an opening day “A” CinemaScore and if history of Marvel movies tell us anything, even if the first one opens weak that doesn’t mean the second one will. Thor opened with $65.7 million in 2011 and Captain America: The First Avenger opened with $65 million that same year. In 2013, Thor: The Dark World blew that original opening away with $85.7 million while Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened with $95 million just last year. Just wait until Ant-Man is seen in Captain America: Civil War next year, teaming up with the Avengers can really raise a superhero’s profile.
Meanwhile, Amy Schumer‘s Trainwreck had a strong impact on theaters, opening with $30.2 million and an “A-” CinemaScore, that’s higher than Bridesmaids ($26m) four years ago and serves as director Judd Apatow‘s second highest opening, just a fraction behind Knocked Up‘s $30.6 million.
Coming in second, between our two newcomers, was Minions in its second weekend where it dropped a little more than expected, bringing in $50.2 million as its cume rises to $216.7 million, in just ten days. That might be a 57% drop, but after you open as big as this one did and also face competition such as both Ant-Man and Inside Out it does make it tough to hold on too strong.
Speaking of Inside Out, it added another $11.6 million to its total, bringing its cume to $306.3 million, as it is now the third highest grossing domestic release for a Pixar film and will be challenging Finding Nemo ($339.7m) for that second position in the coming weeks.
In other news, Jurassic World became only the fourth film to ever cross the $600 million mark domestically. Sitting at $611.1 million, it sits just behind The Avengers ($623.3m) and considering it added another $11.3 million this weekend it seems obvious it will move into that third spot, but can it top Titanic‘s $658.6 million for second?
Next weekend sees the release of Pixels, Paper Towns, Southpaw and The Vatican Tapes. I’m going to have to skip my screening of Pixels, but my odds are on it taking the top spot. However, that Southpaw marketing push has been massive and last year The Fault in Our Stars opened with $48 million, any chance Paper Towns can follow suit?
