Weekend Box Office (May 17 - 19, 2019)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND Keanu Reeves took control of the box office with guns. Lots of guns. His action threequel John Wick: Chapter 3 beat high expectations and soared to an opening weekend of an estimated $57M nearly doubling the $30.4M debut of its predecessor Chapter 2. The new pic even grossed more in its first weekend than the first John Wick film did during its entire run.

Audience love for the series and the character has grown over the years and Chapter 3 took full advantage. Strong marketing kept interest high and with PG-13 comic book movies dominating the box office in recent times, action fans hungry for higher levels of blood-soaked violence got what they were looking for right here.

Reviews were quite strong, especially for a third installment of an action series, and paying moviegoers are liking the film a lot too with the A- CinemaScore grade. Studio data showed that the crowd was 63% male and 74% over 25. Outside of super hero films, the only R-rated action movies to ever open bigger were The Matrix Reloaded, 300, and 22 Jump Street. The new John Wick also debuted to a strong $35.2M from 66 international markets for a big global launch of $92.2M.

Following its three-week reign atop the charts, Avengers: Endgame fell down to second place and grossed an estimated $29.4M in its fourth round declining by 54%. Disney's astonishing cume rose to $770.8M as Iron Man, Black Widow, and gang sped past Avatar's $760.5M on Saturday to become the second biggest domestic blockbuster of all-time behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The North American total looks on course to end in the friendly $845M neighborhood.

Overseas markets also fell by 54% taking in $46.8M this weekend boosting that total to a remarkable $1.84 billion putting the new global haul at $2.61 billion. Eroding faster than Infinity War, Endgame is on a trajectory to finish its worldwide run very close to the all-time record of $2.79 billion set by Avatar. Whether it ends a little below, or a little above, will be up to the fans.

Pokemon Detective Pikachu dropped from second to third place this weekend with an estimated $24.8M falling 54% which was reasonable for a franchise film with a built-in fan base. The domestic cume is now $94M and is on track to break the $100M mark on Tuesday or Wednesday. It will be the first film from this Warner Bros. franchise to do it.

The pet sequel A Dog's Journey opened to less than half of what its predecessor debuted to with an estimated $8M this weekend compared to the $18.2M for A Dog's Purpose from just two years ago. Universal's new film averaged only $2,449 from 3,267 locations and appealed to families with younger children in a crowded summer marketplace.

Dropping 53% in its second weekend was The Hustle which collected an estimated $6.1M pushing the UA cume to $23.1M. Sony's thriller The Intruder followed with an estimated $4M, off 44%, for $28.1M overall.

The R-rated comedy Long Shot was down 46% to an estimated $3.4M with Lionsgate taking in $25.7M to date. New romance drama The Sun Is Also a Star opened in eighth place with an estimated $2.6M from 2,073 locations for a soft $1,254 average.

Falling 61% from Mother's Day weekend, the comedy Poms took in an estimated $2.1M for a cume of only $10M for STX. The studio's toon Uglydolls grossed an estimated $1.6M, down 61%, putting it at $17.3M.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $139M which was down 31% from last year when Deadpool 2 opened at number one with $125.5M; but up 21% from 2017 when Alien: Covenant debuted on top with $36.2M.


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Watch the trailer for It Chapter Two.

# Title May 17 - 19 May 10 - 12 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 John Wick: Chapter 3 $ 56,818,067 3,850 1 $ 14,758 $ 56,818,067 Lionsgate
2 Avengers: Endgame 29,973,505 63,299,904 -52.6 4,220 4 7,103 771,368,375 Disney
3 Pokemon Detective Pikachu 25,108,159 54,365,242 -53.8 4,248 2 5,911 94,295,005 Warner Bros.
4 A Dog's Journey 8,030,085 3,267 1 2,458 8,030,085 Universal
5 The Hustle 6,139,638 13,007,709 -52.8 3,077 2 1,995 23,204,362 UA
6 The Intruder 4,017,808 7,190,325 -44.1 2,231 3 1,801 28,050,949 Sony
7 Long Shot 3,341,917 6,271,532 -46.7 2,110 3 1,584 25,664,963 Lionsgate
8 The Sun Is Also a Star 2,511,530 2,073 1 1,212 2,511,530 Warner Bros.
9 Poms 2,180,698 5,361,937 -59.3 2,750 2 793 10,110,890 STX
10 Uglydolls 1,779,617 4,147,092 -57.1 2,030 3 877 17,433,285 STX
11 Breakthrough 1,081,480 2,575,263 -58.0 1,375 5 787 39,012,955 Fox
12 The Curse of La Llorona 890,020 1,851,722 -51.9 651 5 1,367 53,005,382 Warner Bros.
13 Captain Marvel 735,998 1,846,396 -60.1 726 11 1,014 425,152,517 Disney
14 Tolkien 731,445 2,200,537 -66.8 1,501 2 487 3,768,184 Fox Searchlight
15 Shazam! 660,710 1,033,186 -36.1 536 7 1,233 138,067,613 Warner Bros.
16 De De Pyaar De 425,934 104 1 4,096 425,934 Yash Raj
17 Dumbo 309,302 744,251 -58.4 415 8 745 111,521,409 Disney
18 Little 279,785 684,050 -59.1 314 6 891 40,195,795 Universal
19 The Biggest Little Farm 276,446 110,492 150.2 45 2 6,143 413,154 Neon
20 The White Crow 231,379 149,648 54.6 136 4 1,701 702,966 Sony Classics
Top 5 $ 126,069,454 $ 144,134,712 -12.5
Top 10 139,901,024 160,271,263 -12.7
Top 20 145,523,523 166,408,210 -12.6
Top 20 vs. 2018 145,523,523 207,057,434 -29.7

Last Updated: May 19, 2019 at 12:40PM ET

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