Only one of the weekend’s four new releases emerged a success, with two of the other three resigned to be forever known undeniably as flops. Meanwhile, last week’s chart-topper held on to its top spot for a second week.
That chart-topper would be Disney’s Zootopia, which grossed as much as the rest of the Top 5 combined, and in Week 2 at that! The film also crossed $100 million and easily passed Kung Fu Panda 3 to become the year’s biggest animated film to date.
Coming in at #2, 10 Cloverfield Lane proved to be a modest hit, especially considering that what it’s even about is a tightly kept secret. Mass audiences are usually drawn to the familiar (hence all the biggest hits being sequels and franchise films), so this is quite nice to see. Reviews are very, very strong — and, if audiences love this as much as critics do, then this could become quite a word-of-mouth success with more staying power than the average thriller.
Familiar titles filled out the rest of the Top 5, with Deadpool still holding on at #3, even into its fifth week. The adults-only superhero flick is such a massive hit, especially for an R-rated film, and it’s only about $20 million away from passing American Sniper to become the #2 R-rated film of all time. Last week’s new releases London Has Fallen and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot came in at #4 and 5, respectively. The latter was a disappointment in its opening weekend last week, but it experienced a fairly light decline this week, so perhaps word-of-mouth is keeping it alive?
Who would have thought, among the other three new releases, that The Perfect Match would become the biggest hit of them all? Well, that’s exactly what it succeeded in doing, as it took the #6 spot. Its box office gross is nothing at all impressive in itself — however, this is a film that received very little marketing and debuted on only 925 screens (the other two had at least twice as many). In fact, The Perfect Match had the third-highest per-screen average in the Top 10! Expect this to expand to more theatres next week and attempt to capitalize on this early success.
News was much less happy for The Young Messiah and The Brothers Grimsby, which finished at #7 and 8, respectively. Let’s cut to the chase — these both flopped hard. Critics didn’t like them; audiences didn’t care. Expect them to disappear from theatres swiftly.
At #9, Gods of Egypt dropped four slots from last week. People hate this movie. By all accounts, it’s terrible. But… might it eventually become one of those cult classics that people love because of how awful it is? I haven’t seen it yet. Anyone care to chime in on this? Meanwhile, the Easter-season drama about the resurrection of Jesus, Risen, fell four slots as well to #10, though it has already been a big enough success to make back its production budget and then some, making this a success, even though it has zero buzz.
| TW | LW | Title | Gross (est.) | Cumulative (est.) | Weeks in Release |
| 1 | 1 | Zootopia | $50,000,000 | $142,615,126 | 2 |
| 2 | N | 10 Cloverfield Lane | $25,200,000 | $25,200,000 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 | Deadpool | $10,800,000 | $328,077,425 | 5 |
| 4 | 2 | London Has Fallen | $10,668,000 | $38,850,052 | 2 |
| 5 | 4 | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | $4,600,000 | $14,571,903 | 2 |
| 6 | N | The Perfect Match | $4,150,000 | $4,150,000 | 1 |
| 7 | N | The Young Messiah | $3,404,000 | $3,404,000 | 1 |
| 8 | N | The Brothers Grimsby | $3,150,000 | $3,150,000 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | Gods of Egypt | $2,500,000 | $27,312,889 | 3 |
| 10 | 6 | Risen | $2,250,000 | $32,395,761 | 4 |
Source: Box Office Mojo
What did you see this weekend?
