It was averyquiet weekend at the box office as moviegoers appear to be saving up their hard-earned money for multiple trips to seeAvengers: Endgamenext weekend. The Warner Bros./New Line horror filmThe Curse of La Lloronatopped the weekend with a solid $26.5 million—above expectations—but overall it was the slowest Easter weekend since 2005, when theAshton Kutcher-ledGuess Who’s Coming to Dinnerremake topped the charts. Remember that one? No? Alrighty then.
La Lloronais a 70s-set horror thriller produced byJames Wanwith tangential ties toThe Conjuringuniverse, but while it suffered pretty negative reviews, audiences didn’t seem to mind all that much (see also:The Nun). The R-rated film cost only $9 million to make, and hails from directorMichael Chaveswho next helmsThe Conjuring 3.
Coming in second place wasShazam!, dethroned in its third weekend but still performing strong with $17.3 million. That brings the DC superhero movie’s domestic total up to $121 million and its worldwide total has surpassed $322 million. The film will no doubt dip next weekend whenAvengers: Endgamearrives, but given thatShazam!is neither a major comics property nor a movie star-led vehicle, these numbers are impressive.
In third place was the faith-based dramaBreakthrough, a Christian-oriented film that drew $11 million on Easter weekend to bring its five-day total to $14.5 million. The movie hails from 20th Century Fox, but marks the first Fox film to be released following Disney’s acquisition of the studio.
Speaking of which, theselowEaster numbers are (hopefully) due to the arrival ofAvengers: Endgamenext week, the highly anticipatedAvengers: Infinity Warsequel that’s being touted as the culmination of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, since 2008’sIron Man. A consequence of this could be a solid bump thatCaptain Marvelreceived this weekend, which pulled in a surprising $9 million over a month and a half after its initial release. TheBrie Larson-led superhero movie has grossed over $1.09 billion worldwide and surpassedThe Dark Knight Risesthis weekend to become the #8 global superhero movie of all time. Domestically,Captain Marvelhas now become the seventh MCU movie to cross $400 million.
How high willAvengers: Endgamesoar, and how long will it reign? The runway is fairly clear throughout May unless something likeDetective Pikachusurprises big time, and Disney itself has staked out May 24th—a month afterEndgame’s release—for the live-action remake ofAladdin. Of course that was the strategy employed forSolo: A Star Wars StoryafterInfinity Warlast year and we saw how that panned out, but it’ll be interesting to see how theWill Smith-led film performs.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, check out the weekend box office estimates below, and be sure to come back next weekend for a rundown of the sure-to-be-record-setting totals forEndgame.
The Curse of La Llorona
$26,505,000
$17,340,000
$121,341,951
Breakthrough
$11,100,000
$14,606,925
Captain Marvel
$9,100,000
$400,026,133
$8,451,000
$29,380,410
$6,800,000
$101,254,910
Pet Sematary
$4,850,000
$49,583,075
Missing Link
$4,369,756
$12,976,997
$4,264,000
$170,444,620
$3,880,000
$19,676,271
