With no major new films opening, this weekend’s total box office was down 42% from the same frame a year ago—though, since that was Easter weekend, a better comparison might be with the April 10-13 weekend last year, when, in its second weekend, Furious 7 topped the box office with $59.6 million, just a 59% drop from its opening, and the box office total of the top 12 films was just marginally better than it was this past weekend.
Batman v. Superman has now surpassed Man of Steel ($668 million) and will undoubtedly outgross every single superhero film produced by Fox and every one from Sony that doesn’t feature a prominent wall-crawler. BvS will likely finish as at least the number six or seven superhero film all-time (not adjusted for inflation), so what is the problem?
The problem is that BvS is behaving more like a front-loaded “fan-film” like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which dropped 72% or The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which tumbled 70% rather than like a superhero film with a major mass appeal like The Dark Knight (53%) or even Avengers: Age of Ultron (59%). And, while BvS has set all sorts of speed records as it roared to $680 million worldwide in ten days, there’s not a whole lot left. It opened in every major world market, and it is fading fast in the biggest one outside of North America—in its second weekend in China BvS dropped a whopping 85% and was beaten by Zootopia, which has been in theaters in The Middle Kingdom for five weekends.
Though it is too early to make any definitive judgments, BvS may not be able to crack the $1 billion mark worldwide—and given the film’s $250 million production cost (plus marketing costs and the reduced take from foreign earnings), it would appear that BvS will have to make that much to turn a sizable profit. The steep drop here in North America is especially troubling because BvS faced virtually no competition (next weekend it will start to lose some IMAX screens to Disney’s The Jungle Book).
The dark, super-serious, lugubrious tone of BvS, which alienated the critics (and some fans), could be a problem for the DC Extended Universe going forward, though it appears that the studio has already taken steps to lighten the tone of this summer’s Suicide Squad by ordering expensive reshoots (see “Suicide Squad Sent Up for Reshoots”). But will moviegoers, who gave BvS a lowly “B-“ CinemaScore take out their disappointment on Suicide Squad or Snyder’s Justice League movies?
So, even as BvS sets all sorts of box office records, there must be a nagging doubt that the DCEU might be in a little trouble if the writers, directors, and producers at Warner Bros. can’t get the “tone” right and avoid being “campy” without becoming turgid. As the Joker famously said, “Why so serious?”
Meanwhile Disney’s Zootopia dropped just 16.7% in its fifth weekend in theaters as it earned another $20 million to drive its North American total to $276 million. Overseas the film added $30 million to bring its worldwide total to $787.6 million, $215.3 million of which comes from China.
The comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 slipped 37.7% in its second frame as it earned $11.1 million to bring its total to $35.5 million. Among the top ten films, only BvS dropped more than 40% this weekend. The religiously-themed Miracles From Heaven slipped just 22%, and landed at #5, while the horror/hostage/monster drama 10 Cloverfield Lane eased down 20% as it ended up at #7 in its fourth weekend in theaters.
There were some low key, non-major studio new releases this week including God Is Not Dead 2, which earned $8 million from 2,400 theaters, and the comedy Meet the Blacks, which earned $4 million from just over a thousand theaters.
The drone warfare drama Eye in the Sky expanded to just over 1,000 theaters and earned $4 million, while Fox’s Deadpool re-entered the top ten in its 8th weekend as it earned $3.5 million to bring its 2016 leading box office total to $355.1 million. It is still not certain the BvS will top Deadpool’s domestic numbers, though the DC slugfest will win the worldwide total contest (blame Deadpool’s lack of a run in Chinese theaters for that).
Be sure to check back here next week to see if the Go-Pro/1st Person horror film Hardcore Henry or the R-rated Melissa McCarthy comedy The Boss can dislodge Batman v. Superman from its lofty perch.