Monday Update:

Fox’s superhero sequel proved the franchise was hardly “dead,” as Deadpool 2 opened atop the box office with $125.5 million.

While that was about 5 percent behind the original Deadpool from 2016, that film had the benefit of both the President’s Day holiday and Valentine’s Day, rendering comparisons somewhat inexact.

The two Deadpool films now take both the top two slots in the ranking of higher R-rated opening weekends of all time. (Adjusted for ticket price inflation, the original remains #1, but the sequel falls to #4 behind also The Matrix Reloaded and last year’s It.)

Elsewhere at the box office:

• The top film for the past three straight weekends, fellow superhero sequel Avengers: Infinity War, drops to second place with $29.4 million.
• Paramount’s counter-programmer Book Club, aimed primarily at women over 40, debuted in third place with $13.5 million.
• Global Road Entertainment’s family-friendly Show Dogs started a bit behind expectations, with $6.0 million and sixth place.

Comparisons

Total box office this weekend was $204.9 million.

That’s 51.0 percent above last weekend. It’s also 68.3 percent above this same weekend last year, when Alien: Covenant led with $36.1 million.

Total year-to-date box office stands at $4.56 billion, or 6.9 percent above this same date last year. That’s an improvement from the +5.3 percent that the YTD box office stood after last weekend. It’s also the highest percentage that 2018’s box office has stood relative to 2017 since mid-March.

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

Sunday Update:

Deadpool 2 reigned supreme this weekend at the North American box office, dethroning three-time champ Avengers: Infinity War with a sizzling $125 million debut. While it’s an impressive opening, the R-rated superhero sequel came in at the lower end of expectations and failed to unseat its predecessor for the title of top R-rated opening of all time in North America.

From its opening day, the 20th Century Fox release was already making its way into the record books. Its Thursday night preview gross of $18.6 million was the highest-ever for an R-rated film (and only a shade behind more family-friendly blockbusters like The Avengers and Jurassic World), and its gross on Friday was also the highest R-rated opening day take in history, topping It‘s $50.4 million (as well as the first Deadpool‘s $47.3 million). The film’s take was boosted by an enormous screen count of 4,349, a record for both an R-rated movie and 20th Century Fox.

As standalone superhero sequels go, Deadpool 2 is somewhat unusual in that it it grossed less than the first film did in its opening weekend. It’s more typical for such sequels to surpass the opening weekend of their predecessor take by a significantly wide margin, which suggests the first Deadpool did a fantastic job of wooing its core fanbase out of the gate the first time around (and obviously they liked the results, as they mostly ended up coming back for more).

Deadpool 2 was certainly helped along by positive critical notices (it currently stands at an 84% “Certified Fresh” rating, about even with the first film), the studio’s clever, no-holds-barred marketing campaign, and excellent word-of-mouth (the Cinemascore is an “A” and its Rotten Tomatoes audience rating is 85%). That said, it was more frontloaded than the first entry, dropping a sizable 24 percent from Friday to Saturday as opposed to Deadpool‘s 10 percent. It will be interesting to see how Deadpool 2 holds up in its sophomore frame, particularly with Solo: A Star Wars Story set to drop next weekend.

Falling to second place for the first time, Avengers: Infinity War brought in an estimated $28.7 million in its fourth go-round, bringing its domestic total to a titanic $595 million. The film obviously took a sizable hit from the Merc with a Mouth this weekend, falling 53 percent, but luckily it was able to enjoy three full weekends of play with no major competitors in the marketplace. It won’t be long before the superhero blockbuster surpasses both Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($620.1 million) and the first Avengers ($623.3 million) to become the sixth highest-grossing movie of all time in North America.

Third place went to Paramount’s Book Club, which brought in a healthy $12.5 million in its opening frame. The comedy starring Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen, Diane Keaton, and Candice Bergen was squarely aimed at older women (a.k.a. those who aren’t likely clamoring to see Deadpool 2), and that proved to be a smart feat of counter-programming on the part of the studio. The audience breakdown on this one was about what you’d expect, with 80 percent women, 88 percent over the age of 35, and nearly 50 percent women over the age of 50.

Compared with other recent releases aimed at the same general audience, Book Club‘s opening is about on par with last year’s Going in Style ($11.9 million opening), while it came in several million shy of 2015’s The Intern ($17.7 million). Though critics were decidedly mixed, the positive “A-” CinemaScore could suggest a leggy run ahead for the film, which has few competitors in the marketplace currently.

The weekend’s other wide opener, the family-oriented Show Dogs, withered with a scant $6 million in sixth place in its first go-round. Unlike Book Club, the Global Road release did not prove to be an effective counter-programmer against Deadpool. It was likely hurt by negative reviews (it currently sits at a dismal 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and the fact that unlike some of the most successful recent family films, its marketing failed to offer anything that might woo parents as well as kids (the attachment of Arrested Development star Will Arnett notwithstanding).

Show Dogs‘ opening is similar to last year’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, which debuted to $7.1 million on the pre-Memorial Day weekend last year before going on to a final gross of $20.7 million. It’s certainly not a good sign that even with so few viable family movies currently in release, Show Dogs couldn’t manage to capture a bigger audience.

Coming in fourth was Warner Bros.’ Life of the Party, which dropped a sizable 56 percent to $7.7 million in its second frame for a total of $31 million so far. Even compared with 2016’s The Boss – up to now McCarthy’s lowest-grossing starring vehicle to date – the numbers are dreary. It’s currently off 22 percent from that film at the same point in its run, further suggesting that audiences are tiring of the type of broad comedy vehicles that once minted gold for the once-unstoppable star.

Also dropping precipitously from its opening frame was Universal’s Breaking In, which took fifth place with an estimated $6.4 million in weekend two. That’s a fairly sizable-but-not-unexpected 63 percent drop for the Gabrielle Union thriller, whose total now stands at $28.7 million after ten days. The film is pacing a few million below Tyler Perry’s Acrimony, which had $31.6 million in the bank at the same point in its run. With a reported production budget of just $6 million, this is a healthy result for the Will Packer-produced title, which managed to nearly equal Life of the Party last weekend despite debuting on roughly 1,000 fewer screens.

In seventh place, Lionsgate/Pantelion’s Overboard took in an estimated $4.7 million in its third weekend, bringing its total to $36.9 million. Eighth went to A Quiet Place, which spent its seventh weekend in the Top 10 with $4 million, bringing the Paramount blockbuster’s total to $176.1 million.

Rounding out the Top 10, Warner Bros./New Line’s Rampage took in an estimated $1.5 million in ninth for a total of $92.4 million after six weeks, while in tenth place I Feel Pretty grossed an estimated $1.2 million in its fifth weekend for a grand total of $46.5 million.

Limited Release:

A24’s First Reformed, the acclaimed drama from writer-director Paul Schrader, opened to a stellar $100,270 on just 4 screens, giving it a fantastic per-screen average of $25,067. The film, which stars Ethan Hawke as a former military chaplain grieving over the death of his son, will expand in the coming weeks.

Also in limited release, the 50th anniversary 70mm rerelease of 2001: A Space Odyssey grossed an estimated $200,000 on four screens, giving it a per-screen average of $50,000. Warner Bros. struck a new, unrestored 70mm print of the film from the original camera negative for the rerelease, an enticing prospect for super-fans of the Stanley Kubrick classic.

Overseas Update:

Deadpool 2 opened to a massive $176 million internationally, in the process becoming Fox International’s highest opening weekend of all time, surpassing the $174 million X-Men: Days of Future Past grossed in 2014 (a number that also included China, where Deadpool 2 has yet to premiere). That’s significantly higher than the first Deadpool, which opened to $132.3 million internationally back in 2016. With an estimated $301 million worldwide, it’s an auspicious start for the superhero sequel, which shot to No. 1 in every market in which it was released.

[Read more here.]

Avengers: Infinity War continued to dominate internationally with $113.1 million. That number includes $53.7 million in China, where it has surpassed $300 million in just ten days. That already makes it the fourth highest-grossing Western release in Chinese history and the highest-grossing Marvel release ever in the country. With $1.814 billion worldwide, the MCU blockbuster is currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all time globally as well as the highest-grossing superhero film of all time.

Weekend Actuals (Domestic)

FRI, MAY. 18 – SUN, MAY. 20

Studio Weekend Estimates (Domestic)

FRI, MAY. 18 – SUN, MAY. 20