Last weekend's box office totals laid bare the have and have-nots of Hollywood in brutal fashion.
The No. 1 movie in the United States and Canada -- as could have been predicted a year ago -- was the Disney-Marvel juggernaut Avengers: Endgame, which collected roughly $146 million. Total domestic ticket sales for the all-star superhero movie stand at $620 million, according to Comscore.
Globally, it surpassed the $2 billion mark, earning $2.189 billion after just 11 days of global release, a new record. (Avatar, the previous record-holder, took 47 days to reach the benchmark and grossed $2.788 billion over the course of its theatrical run.)
"The sprint to $2 billion is unbelievable. We're in uncharted territory," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "Usually films like this are marathoners."
That left three new movies to compete for the scraps.
The Intruder (Columbia) did the best. A thriller aimed at black audiences and directed by Deon Taylor, The Intruder took in about $11 million, a respectable debut for a lightly marketed movie that cost just $8 million to make.
Lionsgate, which has been experiencing a box office drought, tried to compete with Long Shot, an R-rated comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron. Despite strong reviews, the movie lived up to its title, selling about $10 million in tickets. Long Shot cost roughly $40 million to make and another $30 million to market. Lionsgate said on Sunday that it expected Long Shot to find a broader audience over the next month, with the Mother's Day and Memorial Day weekends holding promise.
"Long Shot has a shot at staying power," Dergarabedian said. "But there's a lot of noise to rise above."
Lionsgate is one of a handful of smaller studios that has been struggling as streaming services have moved aggressively into its territory -- midbudget action-adventures, comedies and dramas. Lionsgate had held up Long Shot to Wall Street as one of a handful of movies that would signify a turnaround for its film division. (Another was Hellboy, which bombed last month.) The studio will try again with John Wick: Chapter 3 -- Parabellum, which arrives in theaters May 17.
Another small studio, STXfilms, had an even gloomier weekend. In partnership with Alibaba Pictures, it rolled out UglyDolls -- hyped before its release as the start of a franchise -- to disappointing ticket sales of about $8.5 million. The poorly reviewed film, directed by Kelly Asbury and based on a line of plush toys, cost at least $45 million to make and $30 million to market.
It does, however, still have a China release later this summer.
Rounding out the top five, Disney's Captain Marvel added $4.3 million in its ninth weekend for a cumulative $420.8 million.
At No. 6, Fox's faith-based Breakthrough toted up an additional $3.9 million in its third weekend for a cumulative $33.2 million and Warner Bros.' The Curse of La Llorona came in seventh, adding $3.5 million for a cumulative $48.1 million.
Among limited releases, IFC Films' Non-Fiction, directed by Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, opened with $29,056 in two locations for an average of $14,528.
This week, Warner Bros. releases the family-friendly Pokemon Detective Pikachu, STX Entertainment opens the comedy POMS, Fox Searchlight debuts the drama Tolkien and United Artists Releasing reveals the comedy The Hustle.
Industrywide, the continued success of Endgame has also helped the box office deficit, which went from down 13.2% two weekends ago to down 10.9% last weekend. And Dergarabedian said that the industry may be on its way to a record summer, still.
"It's not just about one movie this summer," he said. "There's a lot more to come from every studio. Diversity of content will rule the day."
MovieStyle on 05/10/2019