Sunday Update: With one of the biggest live-action “original” movie opening weekends in recent memory, Us topped the box office with $71.1M. That’s more than double the $33.3M debut of director Jordan Peele’s prior release Get Out.

Comparisons

Total box office this weekend was $147.8M.

That’s +5.8% above last weekend and +13.4% above this same weekend last year, when Pacific Rim Uprising led with $28.1M.

Year-to-date box office stands at $2.20B. That’s -16.8% behind this same date last year, up from -18.7% after last weekend.

Most analysts are still predicting 2019’s box office to ultimately beat 2018’s, on the strength of this year’s anticipated strong upcoming slate of films, especially sequels.

Demographics

A full demographic breakdown of the top 30 movies this weekend, courtesy of BoxofficeProfile by Vertigo, will be posted here once available.

Monday Update: There’s no two ways about it: Us is a blockbuster.

Jordan Peele’s hugely-anticipated follow-up to Get Out took in an estimated $70.2 million in its debut weekend, blasting past all expectations to claim the third-biggest opening weekend for an R-rated horror film ever behind 2017’s It ($123.4 million) and last year’s Halloween remake ($76.2 million). Additionally, it claimed the biggest debut ever for an original horror film, as well as the largest opening for a live-action original movie since – believe it or not – 2009’s Avatar. Elsewhere, 2019’s first major blockbuster, Disney/Marvel’s Captain Marvel, dropped to second place with a strong performance in its third weekend.

Propelled by a savvy marketing campaign, strong buzz out of SXSW, excellent critical notices, the relative dearth of major horror film releases this year, and audience goodwill from the massively-successful Get Out ($33.3 million opening, $176 million final), Us was always expected to do well, but its debut outperformed even the most bullish of predictions. We arguably haven’t seen a horror auteur like this come on the scene since M. Night Shyamalan, who shot to stardom on the strength of the hugely-successful The Sixth Sense before following it up with Unbreakable a year later. But not even Shyamalan managed to more than double the opening gross of his breakthrough film, as Peele has managed to do here, demonstrating just how much pent-up demand existed for the latter director’s sophomore effort. Of course, it bears pointing out that Us debuted in nearly 1,000 more theaters than Get Out, which partially explains its huge leap over that film’s opening-weekend gross.

That pent-up demand represents an interesting test for Us, which massively benefitted from the critical and commercial success of Get Out but will likely be far more front-loaded than that film, which dipped a tiny 15% in its second weekend. Given how ardent Peele’s fanbase clearly is (Us enjoyed the best opening day of any original R-rated horror film with $29.06 million on Friday), it’s reasonable to expect a much larger second-weekend drop here. It’s also worth noting that Us‘s “B” Cinemascore – while good for the genre – came in a bit lower than Get Out‘s “A-“, suggesting audiences weren’t quite as satisfied with the director’s latest effort, which is undeniably a more challenging and complex film than its predecessor. Still, Us‘s thematic ambiguity and twisty plot rewards repeat viewings, meaning it could theoretically benefit from fans making multiple trips to the theater to unpack some of Peele’s big ideas.

Notably, Us held appeal to a wide range of moviegoers. The opening-weekend audience was split evenly between men and women and nearly evenly between the over-25 and under-25 age demos (53% to 47%). Meanwhile, 30% of the audience was African-American and 21% was Latino, making it a diverse turnout overall.

After a two-week run at No. 1, Captain Marvel dropped to second place with an estimated $35 million, bringing its domestic total to an incredible $321.5 million after 17 days. That vaults the Brie Larson-headlining superhero pic to tenth place on the list of highest-grossing films in the MCU, leapfrogging over Iron Man 2 ($312.4 million total), Thor: Ragnarok ($315 million) and the original Iron Man ($318.4 million). Look for it to surpass both Guardians of the Galaxy ($333.1 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334.2 million) by next weekend. The weekend-to-weekend dip here was a very healthy 48% considering the competition from the juggernaut that is Us, suggesting Captain Marvel continues to enjoy excellent word-of-mouth.

Third place went to Paramount’s Wonder Park, which brought in an estimated $9 million in its second weekend. That’s a decent 43% drop from its $15.8 million debut, bringing the total for the animated title to $29.4 million after ten days. Unfortunately, the budget on this one is a reported $100 million.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Five Feet Apart, which overperformed in its debut last weekend with $13.1 million (off a reported budget of just $7 million) and took in an estimated $8.7 million this weekend, giving it a healthy total of $26.4 million so far. That’s a drop of just 33% for the YA drama, which has been generating lots of buzz with its target audience and earned an “A” Cinemascore from opening-day audiences, suggesting strong word-of-mouth will continue to propel it in the weeks ahead.

In fifth, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World brought in an estimated $6.5 million, bringing the total for the Dreamworks Animation title to a very good $145.8 million. That’s a drop of just 29% from last frame, which is the kind of hold the original How to Train Your Dragon enjoyed back in 2010. This one won’t approach the $217.5 million final gross of that film, but it’s coming close to surpassing that film’s $494.8 million total globally, where it currently stands at an impressive $488.1 million.

Falling to sixth in weekend number four is Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral, which brought in an estimated $4.5 million for a total to date of $65.8 million. It’s now the third highest-grossing entry in the long-running franchise, just ahead of Madea’s Witness Protection ($65.6 million) and just behind Boo! A Madea Halloween ($73.2 million).

Expanding to 654 locations after a two-week run in limited theaters was A24’s Gloria Bell, which made its Top 10 debut with an estimated $1.8 million in seventh place, giving it a decent per-screen average of $2,756. The critically-acclaimed Julianne Moore drama has $2.49 million to date.

Eighth place went to No Manches Frida 2, which brought in an estimated $1.78 million in its second weekend of release. The Lionsgate/Pantelion comedy sequel now has $6.6 million after ten days, putting it slightly behind the first No Manches Frida, which had brought in $7.3 million by the same point in its run. 

Rounding out the Top 10 were The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part and Alita: Battle Angel, which brought in an estimated $1.12 million and $1.01 million, respectively. The total for the animated sequel is now $103.3 million after seven weeks, while Fox’s manga adaptation stands at $83.7 million after six weeks.

One other weekend performance to note is Warner Bros.’ Shazam!, which brought in $3.3 million in special Fandango preview screenings on 1,200 screens Saturday. While the nature of the screenings doesn’t merit the superhero comedy’s inclusion in the overall weekend Top 10, the grosses were an encouraging indicator of things to come when the film opens on April 5.

Limited Release: 

Bleecker Street’s Hotel Mumbai debuted to an estimated $86K on just four screens this weekend, giving the Dev Patel-Armie Hammer action-drama a per-screen average of over $21K. The fact-based film debuted to mixed-to-positive reviews, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 73%.

Overseas Update:

Captain Marvel brought in an estimated $87 million overseas this weekend, bringing its international total to $588.8 million and its global cume to an astonishing $910.3 million. The MCU entry now stands at No. 10 on the list of top-grossing superhero movies of all time worldwide, with top-grossing international territories including China ($146.3 million), Korea ($40.1 million), the UK ($38.9 million), and Brazil ($30.6 million).

Us brought in an estimated $16.7 million in 47 markets, including $3.6 million in Ireland and the UK and $1.9 million in France. That brings its worldwide debut total to $86.9 million.

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