Weekend Estimates: ‘Angry Birds’ Slingshots To $39M; ‘Civil War’ Nets $33.1M; ‘Neighbors 2’ Disappoints With $21.7M; ‘Nice Guys’ Finish With $11.2M

Sony’s The Angry Birds Movie has nothing to be angry about after making an estimated $39.0 million this weekend, providing the first true animated hit of the summer. The video game adaptation, featuring an all-star voice cast including Jason Sudeikis and Josh Gad, took first place, knocking Captain America: Civil War from the top spot after two weeks. The Angry Birds Movie earned $11.0 million on Friday (which included an estimated $800,000 from Thursday evening shows), increased 47.7 percent on Saturday to gross $16.25 million, and declined an estimated 27.7 percent on Sunday to take in $11.75 million. That places the film’s estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio at 3.54 to 1.

[Read the BoxOffice interview with The Angry Birds Movie directly Fergal Reilly here.]

The Angry Birds Movie‘s $39.0 million opening weekend is just a hair behind the openings for other bird-themed movies including the $39.2 million start of 2011’s Rio and the $39.3 million opening of 2014’s Rio 2, and starts with more than double the $15.8 million opening of 2013’s Free Birds. With an “A” grade on CinemaScore for the core audience demo of those under age 25, a 50/50 male/female audience breakdown, no other major animated films to compete with at the moment, and four weeks until the release of the next major animated feature with Disney’s Finding DoryThe Angry Birds Movie should continue to fly high in the next month.

Disney’s Captain America: Civil War fell to second place with an estimated $33.11 million after commanding the box office for the past two weekends. The superhero sequel starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson fell 54 percent in its third weekend, more than the 50 percent third-weekend drops of last year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2013’s Iron Man 3, though less than the 38 percent third-weekend drop of 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier (though that film’s April release date meant it faced weaker competition at the box office). Civil War has earned an estimated $347.39 million through 17 days, which is 36.6 percent behind the $372.03 million 17-day start of Age of Ultron, 2.8 percent behind the $337.66 million 17-day gross of Iron Man 3, and 73.2 percent higher than the $200.50 million 17-day take of The Winter Soldier.

Universal’s Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising started with an underwhelming $21.79 million for third place. The R-rated comedy sequel starring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, and Chloe Grace Moretz began with $8.79 million on Friday (including an estimated $1.67 million from Thursday evening shows), decreased 11.1 percent on Saturday to $7.78 million, and dropped a further 32.9 percent on Sunday for an estimated $5.22 million. That places the film’s estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.47 to 1. To put that into perspective, it was the only movie in the entire country whose revenue declined from Friday to Saturday.

Neighbors 2 opened 55.5 percent behind the $49.03 million opening weekend of Neighbors in May 2014 — and that was with the sequel playing in 105 more theaters than its predecessor. (To be fair, the original was also the only new release opening above $5 million that weekend, as opposed to this weekend where the sequel was one of three new releases opening above $10 million.) With Neighbors 2 receiving worse reviews than its predecessor — a 61 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to 73 percent for the original — and skewing younger with 61 percent of the audience under 25, don’t expect its cumulative gross to come anywhere near the $150.15 million final haul for the first Neighbors.

Perhaps this may reflect the decreasing star power of the two leads, Rogen and Efron. Both actors had starred in two films in between the first and second Neighbors films, and all four titles — Rogen’s The Interview and The Night Before, Efron’s We Are Your Friends and Dirty Grandpa — underwhelmed at the box office. Or it may just be a continuation of the 2016 trend of sequels earning less than their predecessors, including The Huntsman: Winter’s WarRide Along 2, Zoolander 2, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2Barbershop: The Next Cut, and Kung Fu Panda 3.

Warner’s The Nice Guys came in fourth place with $11.27 million, close enough to fifth place The Jungle Book that the two films may switch places when final numbers come in on Monday. The 1970s-themed action comedy starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling began with $3.90 million on Friday (which includes $700,000 from Thursday evening shows), increased 14.4 percent to $4.46 million on Saturday, and declined 34.8 percent on Sunday to $2.91 million. That places the film’s estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.88 to 1.

Despite some early concerns that The Nice Guys box office would be hurt by the second weekend of Money Monster, also an adult-targeted counterprogramming to the traditional summer fare, if anything the effect seemed to have worked the other way around. Money Monster declining 52 percent in its second weekend, a drop more typical of superhero films than adult-centered dramas. The Nice Guys‘s strong reviews and word of mouth, in addition to its audience being 83 percent over the age of 25 (a demographic that isn’t as opening weekend-obsessed), may help it going forward. The movie opened 5.3 percent higher than the $10.53 million wide opening weekend of Gosling’s previous film The Big Short last December and 36.2 percent higher than the $8.26 million opening of Crowe’s previous buddy-cop film Broken City with Mark Wahlberg in 2013.

In other box office news, Disney’s The Jungle Book declined 35.6 percent to earn $11.01 million, seeming surprisingly unhurt by the release of The Angry Birds MovieThe Jungle Book has made $327.49 million total through 38 days, Sony’s thriller Money Monster starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts tumbled a sharp 52.1 percent to $7.08 million, earning $27.1 million in 10 days. High Top Releasing’s horror flick The Darkness dropped 52.3 percent for a $8.46million 10-day total.

Disney’s Zootopia declined 39.7 percent to make $1.70 million, dropping from sixth to eighth place in the weekend box office — but extending its amazing run of 12 weeks in the top 10, the most since Disney’s Frozen notched 16 weeks in late 2013 / early 2014. Zootopia should be able to hold on in the top 10 for at least one more weekend, with only two new wide releases opening next weekend: Disney’s fantasy sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass and Fox’s superhero sequel X-Men: Apocalypse.

Overseas Update:

Ahead of its domestic release on Friday, X-Men: Apocalypse opened with a massive $103.3 overseas in 75 markets. (And that’s without the film opening in China yet.) Key performances in individual markets include $10.54 million in the United Kingdom, $8.60 million in Mexico, $6.55 million in Brazil, $6.47 million in Russia, and $5.87 million in France.

The Angry Birds Movie made $55.5 million in 83 markets, for a $112 million overseas and $150 million global total. The film made $29.2 million in China, beating the Chinese openings of other recent animated smashes Zootopia and Inside Out. Key grosses to date in individual markets include $9.5 million in Russia, $6.8 million in Germany, $6.6 million in the United Kingdom, $4.9 million in Brazil, and $4.8 million in Mexico.

Captain America: Civil War passed the billion-dollar mark worldwide this weekend, the first film of 2016 to do so. (Zootopia is just short of the threshold with $981.8 million worldwide so far.) Civil War made an estimated $30.7 million overseas this weekend from 55 markets, for a $63.81 million overseas and $1.053 billion global total. Key grosses to date in individual markets include $177.9 million in China, $62.1 million in Korea, $50.1 million in the United Kingdom, $40.7 million in Mexico, $37.4 million in Brazil, $24.9 million in Japan, $23.5 million in Australia, and $21.5 million in France.

The Jungle Book earned $7.4 million overseas this weekend from 47 markets, for a $530.2 million overseas and $857.69 million global total. Key grosses to date in individual markets include $150.1 million in China, $59.6 million in the United Kingdom, $38.4 million in India, $24.7 million in France, $24.2 million in Mexico, $21.9 million in Australia, and $20.3 million in Russia.