Weekend Wrap-Up: Shazam Shocks the New Releases

April 16, 2019

Shazam

Shazam easily topped the weekend box office chart with $24.45 million. This is significantly more than the best new release of the week, Little, which managed $15.41 million during its opening weekend. That film will break even sometime during its home market run. The same can’t be said of Hellboy, After, and Missing Link, all of which will lose money. This caused the overall box office to fall 24% from last weekend to just $110 million. This is also 25% lower than this weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2019 has fallen further behind 2018 and it now behind with $550 million or 17% at $2.68 billion to $3.23 billion. Avengers: Endgame will have to be unreasonably big at the box office for 2019 to turn things around any time soon.

Shazam fell a little faster than anticipated down 54% to $24.45 million over the weekend. However, its two-week total of $94.23 million is already more than it cost to make, so I’m not worried about the film’s ability to break even. Shazam should have long enough legs to break even early in its home market run, even with Avengers: Endgame just around the corner.

Little wasn’t huge during its opening weekend, but it did earn $15.54 million, which is a good debut for a film that reportedly cost around $20 million to make. Granted, its reviews and its B plus from CinemaScore suggest it won’t have very long legs, and it is unlikely to find an audience internationally, but it should do well enough to break even sometime during its initial run on the home market.

Hellboy bombed with just $12.05 million during its opening weekend. The film had the worst reviews of the four new releases, while it only managed a C from CinemaScore. Add in the Fanboy Effect and it will very likely collapse next weekend and start losing theaters when Avengers: Endgame debuts.

Pet Sematary fell faster than expected down 60% to $9.75 million; however, thanks to terrible competition, it was still able to earn fourth place over the weekend. Meanwhile, its running tally rose to $40.87 million and it is on pace to become a solid midlevel hit.

Dumbo managed to remain in the top five one more weekend earning $9.40 million over the weekend for a total of $90.16 million after three. Unfortunately, given the film’s production budget, this is about saving face rather than breaking even any time soon.

After was the next best new release earning eighth place with just $6.02 million over the weekend. Terrible reviews and a mere B from CinemaScore will seal its fate going forward.

Sadly, Missing Link was next with just $5.94 million during its opening weekend, despite earning the best reviews of the four wide releases to come out this weekend. It only managed a B plus from CinemaScore, which is weak for a family film. It might be a while for another stop-motion animated film to get a wide release.

The Best of Enemies was the only other sophomore stint to not remain in the top five. It barely managed a spot in the top ten with $2.01 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $8.12 million. It will lose a lot of theaters next weekend.

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Shazam!, Dumbo, Missing Link, The Best of Enemies, Hellboy, Pet Sematary, Little, After