We talk about great franchise performers at the box office, normally the films feature various folks with superpowers, a possessed doll or little child, or maybe Tom Cruise running and running. But one of the most profitable and consistent franchises of the last 15 years doesn’t feature any of that. Instead, it features Tyler Perry dressed as a grandma getting in various adventures and hijinks. And this weekend, the ‘Madea’ franchise came to a close, just as popular as it was a decade ago.
Debuting at #2 (Tyler Perry couldn’t slay the third ‘Dragon’ film, but more on that in a bit) with an impressive $27 million three-day total, the 11th (yes, eleventh!) film in the Perry franchise, “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral” beat predictions and proved that the wild grandma is going out with a bang. As for its long-term prospects, Perry’s ‘Madea’ films are fairly front-loaded, so we can probably expect a fairly large drop next week (for multiple reasons, including the debut of a Marvel Studios film, which always sends the box office for a loop). However, for this weekend, Perry and distributor Lionsgate have to be very pleased.
As for last weekend’s champ, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” the animated film saw a modest -45% drop for another #1 performance, bringing in an estimated $30 million in its second weekend at the box office. Thanks to its two strong weekend frames, ‘Dragon 3’ is still outpacing its predecessors through 10 days. However, the first two films in the franchise were famous for their box office legs. The third film has some steep competition in the coming weeks, so to stay ahead of the previous films, the children’s animated movie is going to need a strong outing against the superhero film, “Captain Marvel” next weekend.
This weekend was also the first post-Oscars outing, which means studios and distributors re-released last weekend’s big winners in a ton more theaters to capitalize on the publicity. The big winners from this push are, unsurprisingly, “Green Book,” which jumped back into the top 10 at #5 with another $4.7 million (thanks to its increase of almost 1,400 theaters), and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which earned another $2.1 million (increase of 1,700 theaters). The latter film also had the disadvantage of hitting digital platforms last week, which shows the animated Spidey flick had not only another big box office weekend (its 12th weekend) and a big digital release.
Before we get to the limited release and indie films, we should quickly mention that a couple of holdovers are still showing signs of a severe slow-down. “Alita,” which to be fair is outpacing its worst-case scenario, dropped another -43% in its third weekend with a three-day total of $7 million. Its domestic total stands at $72 million, which means that it’s going to struggle to reach the coveted $100 million milestone.
READ MORE: ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Soars To The Top As ‘Alita’ Dominates Overseas [Box Office]
But as we continue to say, it’s all about the international gross for ‘Alita,’ and this weekend was going to be the big determining factor for its long-term prospects, as it entered its second weekend in China. Unfortunately, it appears the Chinese totals, while impressive, aren’t going to be the game-changer that Fox hoped for, as the Middle Kingdom is going to begin to embrace the aforementioned “Captain Marvel” next weekend. In its second Chinese frame, ‘Alita’ dropped -62% for a weekend total of $24.2 million. Not terrible, but again, not the massive total that Fox (and ‘Alita’ fans) was hoping for. Right now, the sci-fi film sits at $350 million worldwide, which isn’t a completely terrible total, but it’s going to take some luck and finessing to think this film has serious sequel options moving forward.
The other major debut of the last few weeks that has disappointed is ‘LEGO Movie 2.’ Now, in its 4th weekend, the animated film earned $6.6 million, for a domestic total of only $92 million. This is definitely not what WB was hoping for when it released the film last month. Currently, ‘LEGO Movie 2’ is pacing almost $60 million behind ‘LEGO Batman’ and an astonishing $118 million behind the original ‘LEGO Movie.’ We’ve seen this sort of performance from franchises before, particularly Paramount’s “Transformers,” which saw a massive decrease in box office with its final Michael Bay-directed film (which ultimately led to a reboot). Where does WB go with ‘LEGO’ now? It’s probably best to step away and let the franchise cool off for a bit before figuring out the path forward. Luckily, ‘LEGO’ is the type of franchise with incredible spin-off potential and just needs a really original and fun story to spice it up again. So, the future isn’t that bleak.
As for the indie and limited releases, the weekend was dominated by “Greta.” The Isabelle Huppert/Chloe Grace Moretz thriller debuted in over 2,400 locations and earned a disappointing $4.6 million. Why would Focus Features release the film wide instead of a slow, limited release to build anticipation? According to the critical reviews and audience surveys, “Greta” clearly didn’t have the massive support that would lead to a long, profitable release. The film currently stands at 57% on Rotten Tomatoes and audiences gave the film 2 stars on PostTrak and a 34% definite recommend (via Deadline). This means that critics were mixed-to-negative on the film and audiences were actually harsher. Clearly, Focus Features released it wide to attempt to recoup as much of the costs in one weekend as it could instead of watching the thriller fizzle in limited release.
The news wasn’t all bad for limited releases this weekend, however. “Apollo 11,” which we absolutely adored, debuted in 120 IMAX locations and earned a respectable $1.65 million. Again, this is only from IMAX locations, as the film hits regular screens in the coming weeks. Not bad at all for a documentary about the moon landing, which has been made about 4 billion times previously. And trust us, you want to see this film, and definitely on the biggest screen possible. Check it out before “Captain Marvel” steals the IMAX love next weekend.
READ MORE: Gaspar Noé’s ‘Climax’: An Orgy Of Sex, Drugs, Horror & Death [Cannes Review]
Lastly, Gaspar Noe’s “Climax,” which rocked audiences at last year’s Cannes, finally hit the US. In only 5 theaters, the hard-to-categorize film earned a Per-Theater-Average of $24,331, which was best for the weekend. The film is definitely not a four-quadrant outing, which if you know Noe’s output is no surprise, so we’ll see what happens as the film expands in the weeks to come. Even though it’s still a challenging film from a challenging director, many are saying that “Climax” is Noe’s most accessible work to date.
If you made it through this entire report, then thank you! But more importantly, there’s a film that seemed to keep popping up – “Captain Marvel.” And that’s because next weekend audiences around the world will be introduced to Brie Larson’s Marvel superhero in what will be the first major, major blockbuster of the year. Will it break $100 million? Will it silence the trolls? Or maybe it’ll be Marvel Studios’ first major bomb (highly unlikely)? Join us in seven days to find out!
Here’s the entire top 10 for March 1 to March 3:
1. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – $30M ($97M Overall)
2. Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral – $27M (Debut)
3. Alita: Battle Angel – $7M ($72M)
4. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part – $6.6M ($92M)
5. Green Book – $4.7M ($76M)
6. Fighting with My Family – $4.69M ($15M)
7. Isn’t It Romantic? – $4.65M ($40M)
8. Greta – $4.59M (Debut)
9. What Men Want – $2.7M ($49.6M)
10. Happy Death Day 2U – $2.5M ($25M)