LOS ANGELES -- Despite the Easter holiday, moviegoers were just biding their time until today's release of Disney's Avengers: Endgame which promises to smash box-office records.
In the meantime, the $26.5 million opening of Warner Bros.' The Curse of La Llorona dominated the worst Easter box-office weekend in almost 15 years, with a total gross for all films of $110.8 million, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.
La Llorona unseated the studio's Shazam! from the top spot. The supernatural thriller is based on Mexican folklore about "the weeping woman," a spirit who lost her children and terrorizes those she encounters.
The $9 million-budget movie earned mixed reviews.
Easter weekend saw very few new releases -- and none with large budgets -- giving smaller films like La Llorona a chance to sneak in a few dollars.
"Putting this movie in this sweet spot right before the opening of Endgame really paid big dividends for Warner Bros." said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. "It was a brilliant stroke of scheduling to place a horror movie right there."
The film overcame grim reviews (32 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) to win over audiences. Some scholars and critics also harshly criticized the film for a marketing campaign that involved using traditional Mexican healers for spiritual cleansings before screenings.
It was one of three horror films in the top 10 over the weekend -- Pet Sematary and Us were the other two -- at the end of a winter-spring stretch that along with Halloween has become a heyday for the genre.
Shazam! added $17.3 million in its third weekend for a cumulative $121.3 million.
In third place, Fox's faith-based film Breakthrough opened with $11.1 million over the weekend and $14.6 million since its release April 17.
The $14 million film stars This Is Us actress Chrissy Metz as a mother who struggles to cope following her adopted son's near-death experience. NBA star Stephen Curry executive produced the picture, which earned an A CinemaScore and a 64 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
At No. 4, Disney's Captain Marvel added $9.1 million in its seventh weekend (a 6 percent increase in advance of Endgame) for a cumulative $400 million. Globally, the film earned $15.6 million for a cumulative global gross of more than $1 billion.
Rounding out the top five, Universal's Little added $8.4 million in its second weekend for a cumulative $29.4 million.
Also new last week was Disney's Ed Helms-narrated documentary Penguins, which came in under expectations with $2.3 million earned over the weekend and $3.3 million since April 17. It was well received with an A CinemaScore and a 90 percent fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Despite that, it is the worst opening ever for a DisneyNature release.
Following a soft third-place opening last weekend, Lionsgate's Hellboy dropped a precipitous 68 percent in 10th place, earning $3.9 million for a total of $19.7 million.
In limited release, Neon opened the drama Little Woods in 33 locations with $66,415 for an underwhelming per-screen average of $2,013.
A24's Under the Silver Lake, an L.A. neo-noir starring Andrew Garfield, opened in two locations with $40,157, for a per-screen average of $20,079.
Bleecker Street's Teen Spirit expanded into 696 locations (up from four), earning $250,536 for a dismal per-screen average of $360 and a cumulative $305,536.
Neon's Aretha Franklin documentary, Amazing Grace, expanded into 188 locations in its third weekend with $591,642 for a per-screen average of $3,147 and a cumulative $1.3 million.
Gunpowder & Sky's Her Smell expanded into 24 locations (up from three), earning $68,736 for a per-screen average of $2,864 and a cumulative $117,577.
This week, even though it will still be April, summer essentially begins for Hollywood as Disney looks for Endgame to have possibly the biggest opening of all time.
"The summer season usually doesn't start until the first weekend of May, but Marvel can bend the calendar to their will," Dergarabedian said. "They can say, 'We're going the last Friday in April, here's your summer.'"
MovieStyle on 04/26/2019