You have to give the little guy credit. Pikachu did his best. But not even the combined forces of Pokemon fandom, Ryan Reynolds, and Warner Bros’ marketing team couldn’t take down “Avengers: Endgame” at this weekend’s box office. In its third full frame, the Marvel Studios film didn’t necessarily break any records, but it did beat “Detective Pikachu” while it inches ever so closer to “Avatar” for the biggest record of them all.
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But before we talk about ‘Endgame,’ we have to give props to WB and Reynolds. “Detective Pikachu” had an incredible marketing campaign, propelled by the star’s sense of humor and subversive techniques, including a fake leak of the whole film, funny “behind-the-scenes” videos, and plenty of interviews. And it paid off, as “Detective Pikachu” debuted above expectations with an estimated $58 million domestically. Internationally, the film did just as well as expected, with a solid debut of $112.4 million. That gives the worldwide total, after one weekend, at $170 million. Not bad at all.
The long-term prospects seem to be in the live-action/CGI hybrid film. Though critics seem split with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 63%. (Our review is overwhelmingly positive.) However, audiences seemed to disagree with the split critics, giving “Detective Pikachu” a super strong ‘A-’ CinemaScore, which reveals that kids and families seem to love the PG film. This means that as we approach the Memorial Day weekend, ‘Pikachu’ could see decent holds, as word-of-mouth begins to spread.
But enough about the little yellow pocket monster. Let’s talk about “Avengers: Endgame” and its quest to officially become the biggest film of all-time. With a slightly disappointing drop of -57%, ‘Endgame’ still won the weekend with an estimated $63 million. And with another $102.3 million from overseas, the latest Marvel Studios film now sits at a very respectable $2.486 billion worldwide after three weekends. The only major milestone that the new ‘Avengers’ film can boast is that this week saw the film topple “Titanic” with the second-best international total of $1.762 billion.
Overall, for those keeping track of the record hunt, “Avengers: Endgame” now sits just about $302 million behind “Avatar” on the all-time worldwide total list. As we’ve said over the last couple of weeks, many are predicting that ‘Endgame’ will eventually overtake the James Cameron blue alien film on the list, but I’m just a wee bit skeptical. Smart money is that ‘Endgame’ will eventually do it. That being said, these predictions about $3 billion seem a bit optimistic. Odds are the ‘Avengers’ film (if it continues to do well against competition) will overtake “Avatar,” but it won’t be by a lot.
This weekend also saw some new debuts from other major films, including Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson’s “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” remake, titled “The Hustle,” Diane Keaton’s senior citizens-turned-cheerleaders film, “Poms,” and the Nicholas Hoult-starring biopic “Tolkien.” However, for both, the story isn’t as great as “Detective Pikachu.”
“The Hustle” couldn’t survive terrible reviews and a disappointing ‘B-’ CinemaScore, as the film posted a $13.5 million weekend. This isn’t startlingly bad, but with word-of-mouth likely to be non-existent, this female-led comedy probably won’t have great legs. (Feel free to read out review of the film, which is likely more entertaining than what Hathaway and Wilson released.)
“Poms,” which didn’t have a massive ad buy as “The Hustle,” but featured some well-respected older actresses like Keaton, as well as Jacki Weaver, Rhea Perlman, and Pam Grier, debuted in the #6 spot with $5.1 million. While reviews were pretty terrible, with only a 26% Rotten Tomatoes score, audiences seemed to really respond to the feel-good comedy, as it earned a solid ‘B+’ CinemaScore.
Fox Searchlight’s “Tolkien” biopic didn’t fare very well against the steep competition, as the film barely cracked the top 10, debuted at #9 with only $2.1 million. Much like the other two films we just mentioned, “Tolkien” wasn’t a hit with critics, with a 49% RT score. However, the film only debuted in just about 1,500 screens, which is about half of the launch of “The Hustle” and “Poms.” So, at least the low debut could be offset by the modest launch. Still, the studio can’t be too pleased with the middling response to the long-awaited biopic. Maybe, Fox Searchlight needed some Queen songs?
On the limited release front, three films led the way, with “The Biggest Little Farm” earning the best per-theater-average (PTA) of $20,202 in 5 locations. That’s a solid start for the documentary, which is probably helped by the charismatic leads, which are the Chesters (a married couple that quit city life and bought a farm) and Emma (a pig that steals the show).
“All is True,” which is the Shakespeare biopic directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, opened in 4 locations with an $11,702 PTA. There’s not a huge amount of buzz surrounding this film, and that is reflected in the PTA. That being said, it could have been a lot worse. It could have debuted on the level of “Charlie Says.”
“Charlie Says,” which tells the Manson Family story from the POV of the women involved, arrived in a fairly large amount of locations, totaling 39. But the PTA was downright dreadful, earning only $1,003 at each theater. Not good.
As we approach the summer months, next weekend brings another trio of major debuts, with the YA romance “The Sun is Also a Star,” the feel-good family film “A Dog’s Journey,” and the film that is expected to win the weekend, Keanu Reeves’ latest action flick “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.”
Here’s the entire top 10 for May 10 to May 12:
1. Avengers: Endgame – $63M ($723.5M Overall)
2. Detective Pikachu – $58M (Debut)
3. The Hustle – $13.5M (Debut)
4. The Intruder – $6.6M ($21M)
5. Long Shot – $6.1M ($19.7M)
6. Poms – $5.1M (Debut)
7. UglyDolls – $3.9M ($14.3M)
8. Breakthrough – $2.5M ($37M)
9. Tolkien – $2.1M (Debut)
10. Captain Marvel – $1.8M ($423M)