Monday Update: Crazy Rich Asians just posted one of the best second-weekend holds in modern movie history, with the Warner Bros. romantic comedy falling only -6.4% to $24.8 million.

Almost all the movies whose second weekends have ever fallen that mildly — or even gained relative to their openings — saw their second weekend coincide with a holiday: Christmas, New Year’s, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, or Memorial Day. Crazy had no such holiday boost, instead relying solely on positive word of mouth and terrific audience reception to keep its momentum going.

Only two movies have ever posted better second-weekend holds without the benefit of a holiday: Puss in Boots with -3.0% and Brother Bear with -4.5%. (And even Brother Bear needs something of an asterisk, since it expanded to a wide release on a Saturday, thus depressing its wide opening weekend in the first place.)

Elsewhere at the box office, STX’s R-rated comedy The Happytime Murders came in well below pre-release projections, debuting with $9.5 million in third place. Global Road Entertainment’s sci-fi A.X.L. began in 10th place with $2.7 million, although that was in line with the already-low projections.

Comparisons

Total box office this weekend was $102.7 million. That’s -20.6% below last weekend, but +42.8% ahead of this same weekend last year.

Year-to-date box office stands at $8.15 billion. That’s +9.8% ahead of last year, up from +9.2% after last weekend.

Demographic data

According to demographic data from BoxofficeProfile by Vertigo:

Our full table of weekend actuals is below, after our Sunday update featuring fuller analysis.

Sunday Update: Crazy Rich Asians had an extraordinary second weekend at the domestic box office, with the breakout hit bringing in an estimated $25 million in its sophomore frame. That’s a roughly 5 percent dip from the film’s $26.5 million three-day opening last weekend, making it by far the smallest second-weekend drop among 2018 studio releases and one of the smallest second-weekend drops ever for a wide release debuting outside the holiday season. Meanwhile, STX’s The Happytime Murders under-performed while Global Road’s A.X.L. struggled to find an audience as it barely managed a Top 10 debut despite opening on over 1,700 screens.

With $76.8 million in the bank after just 12 days of release, Crazy Rich Asians has officially surpassed all expectations as it continues to dominate all releases at the North American box office. The film has not only effectively tapped into a gravely underserved audience (namely Asian-American moviegoers) but has clearly broken out beyond that, with word-of-mouth and repeat viewings propelling it to an incredible second-weekend performance of the sort we rarely see today. The Warner Bros. release is now set to easily become the eighteenth title of 2018 to top $100 million, though with this minuscule drop there’s no telling how high it might go beyond that. While industry observers had expected a strong second-weekend performance, few anticipated that it would hold quite this well.

Crazy Rich Asians is also notable for being arguably the sole breakout hit among this year’s adult-driven studio comedies, which have been unusually weak; indeed, none have topped $100 million (or even $70 million) before now. That makes it the top-grossing comedy of 2018 so far after less than two weeks of release, and indeed, it’s set to potentially double (if not more than double) 2018’s previous highest-grossing comedy Game Night, which topped out at just over $69 million in North America after debuting to $17 million back in February. This makes Crazy Rich Asians not only one of the biggest movie stories of 2018, but one of the most exciting box office stories as well, as it performs beyond all expectations and appears primed to play strongly well into the fall.

Warner Bros. maintained its hold on the top two spots this weekend, as its surprise-hit shark thriller The Meg again finished in second place, bringing in an estimated $13 million (a drop of just 38 percent) for a total of $105.3 million after three weeks of release. That makes it the seventeenth release of 2018 to top the $100 million mark domestically. Incidentally, while the 2018 box office is up nearly ten percent over last year, the number of $100 million-plus releases is down a bit from 2017, when 20 films had reached that milestone by the same point.

Debuting lower than expected in third place was STX’s The Happytime Murders, which opened to an estimated $10 million on 3,256 screens. That makes it the lowest post-Bridesmaids opening ever for star Melissa McCarthy, whose Life of the Party similarly came in at the lower end of expectations when it debuted to $17.8 million back in May (before going on to earn a total of $52.8 million in North America).

The R-rated Muppet comedy (directed by Jim Henson’s son Brian) wasn’t helped by poor reviews (its average currently sits at 22% on Rotten Tomatoes) and presumably poor word-of-mouth, as opening weekend audiences awarded it a mere “C-” according to Cinemascore. Observers had been expecting a debut in the mid-teens, but after opening to just $3.95 million on Friday, it became clear the film wouldn’t come near that amount.

Remaining in fourth place was Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which grossed an estimated $8 million in its fifth weekend for a total of $193.9 million, bringing the franchise installment ever closer to the $200 million mark. Look for the Paramount release to surpass Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation‘s $195 million total by next weekend.

Fifth place went to Disney’s Christopher Robin, which dipped just 28 percent to an estimated $6.3 million. The family release now has $77.6 million after four weeks of release.

In sixth, last weekend’s newcomer Mile 22 dipped significantly to an estimated $6 million in weekend two, giving the latest Mark Wahlberg-Peter Berg collaboration just $25.1 million after ten days of release. Though it should surpass the $31.8 million final domestic gross of their last film together, 2016’s Patriots Day, it’s clearly not the franchise-starter they were hoping for.

In seventh, another freshman release from last weekend, Studio 8’s Alpha, took in $5.6 million, representing a roughly 46 percent drop from its slightly better-than-expected $10.3 million debut. The historical adventure saga, which takes place 20,000 years in the past and has its characters speaking in a fictional language, scored with critics but seems to have been too difficult a sell for audiences. Its total now stands at $20.1 million after ten days of release – not a great result considering the film’s reported budget of $50 million.

Eighth place went to BlacKkKlansman, which posted another strong hold in its third weekend with an estimated $5.3 million. That’s a mere 27 percent drop from last weekend, giving the Spike Lee release a domestic total of $32 million so far. It now sits in fifth place among Lee’s films at the domestic box office, having surpassed 1989’s Do the Right Thing (not adjusting for inflation) and soon to top the $32.4 million gross of 1991’s Jungle Fever.

Landing in ninth place was the sci-fi/adventure film A.X.L., which took in an estimated $2.9 million from 1,710 locations in its opening frame. While that’s certainly not a great result, it’s also not a surprising one, as no one had predicted an opening anywhere above the low-single-digit millions for the film. It doesn’t help that it scored poorly with critics (it currently sits at 22% on Rotten Tomatoes), though it did fare better with audiences, who awarded the film a “B+” average via Cinemascore. As it happens, the film’s release comes amidst news regarding distributor Global Road’s financial issues, with the company reportedly in danger of declaring bankruptcy. The studio’s previous releases include this year’s Show Dogs, Midnight Sun, and Hotel Artemis.

Rounding out the Top 10 is the teen-targeted horror flick Slender Man, which grossed an estimated $2.7 million in weekend three. The total for the $10 million Sony release now stands at a decent $25.4 million.

Believe it or not, the weekend also saw two other semi-wide releases, though neither registered as much more than a blip. Bleecker Street’s modern-day update of Papillon starring Charlie Hunnam brought in an estimated $1.1 million from 544 screens, while ArtAffects’ Beautifully Broken took in an estimated $453K on 651 screens through Saturday (the distributor hadn’t provided a Sunday estimate as of press time).

Limited Release:

The acclaimed techno-thriller Searching starring John Cho debuted on nine screens this weekend and took in an estimated $360K, giving the Screen Gems release an excellent per-screen average of $40,000 – by far the highest of any film this weekend. This weekend’s result bodes well for the film’s wide expansion next Friday, where it’s slated to play on over 1,000 screens across North America.

Overseas Update:

The Meg continued its dominant run overseas this weekend, taking in another estimated $32.7 million for an international total of $303.3 million and a worldwide cume of $408.6 million. This includes a whopping $143 million in China, where it has cracked the Top 5 among U.S. releases in the country this year.

Speaking of China, Ant-Man and the Wasp had its debut in the country this weekend, where it took in an estimated $68 million. That makes the superhero sequel the fourth-highest opening ever for an MCU title in China and brings its international gross to $333 million and its worldwide cume to $544 million, thereby surpassing the $519.3 million global total of the first Ant-Man.

Crazy Rich Asians brought in an estimated $6 million overseas this weekend in 18 markets, which notably included a $1.8 million opening weekend in Singapore, where the film is set. Its international total now stands at $7.1 million.

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