“Captain America: Brave New World” is losing momentum at the box office, even during a muted winter weekend with hardly any competition.
After a strong $100 million start over the extended Presidents Day holiday frame, Disney and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” crumbed by 68% in its second weekend with $28.3 million from 4,105 North American theaters. The Anthony Mackie-led superhero adventure, which remained in first place on box office charts, has generated $141 million domestically and $289.4 worldwide to date. “Captain America” cost north of $180 million before marketing, making the production budget slightly less expensive than other Marvel tentpoles.
It’s not uncommon for comic book tentpoles on the scale of “Captain America” to significantly slide in subsequent weekends. Yet this film, saddled with negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth, fell on the steeper side with a drop closer to 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania” (down 70% after a $106 million debut) than “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (down 47% after a $118 million debut). “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” also saw similar declines of 67% in their respective sophomore outings — however those 2022 films had much bigger debuts. “Guardians 3” endured at the box office, while “Ant Man 3” became one of the few Marvel movies that failed to cross the $500 million mark globally and didn’t break even in its theatrical run.
“This is the new normal for Marvel movies,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “There’s still no denying these movies have appeal. But a second weekend drop of 68% reflects less audience enthusiasm than you’d expect from Marvel.”
Should “Captain America” follow suit with “Quantumania” rather than “Guardians Vol. 3,” it’ll be concerning for Disney, whose once impenetrable MCU has shown concerning signs of wear and tear in the post-“Avengers: Endgame” era. It’s also a potential problem for movie theater owners because there’s nothing resembling a four-quadrant blockbuster on the calendar until Disney’s “Snow White” remake on March 21.
Second place went to Neon’s gory thriller “The Monkey,” which generated a bloody-good $14.2 million from 3,200 North American theaters in its opening weekend. This marks the second biggest debut for Neon following last July’s “Longlegs” ($22.4 million), both of which were directed by Osgood Perkins.
“The Monkey” is adapted from Stephen King’s 1980s short story about a cursed toy that causes people to suffer random, horrific deaths. Audiences, perhaps disturbed by all the on-screen carnage, saddled “The Monkey” with a “C+” on CinemaScore. However, that grade isn’t all that surprising considering King himself (admiringly) called the movie “batshit insane.” Starring Theo James (“The White Lotus”) and Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”) and produced by James Wan (“Saw,” “The Conjuring”), “The Monkey” carries a $10 million budget.
“Masters of horror Osgood Perkins, James Wan and Stephen King crafted a shocking thrill ride that has subverted the horror genre and created a raucous good time for audiences across the country,” said Neon’s chief distribution officer Elissa Federoff. “Our second collaboration with Osgood gave us the opportunity to create a campaign that embraced the fun of the film and the collective rush audiences would experience in the theater.”
Another newcomer, Lionsgate’s “The Unbreakable Boy” stumbled in eighth place with $2.5 million from 1,687 venues. Zachary Levi stars in the faith-based film as the father of a son who is on the autism spectrum and has brittle bone disease. Audiences were more receptive than critics; “The Unbreakable Boy” holds an “A” grade on CinemaScore and 48% average on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sony’s “Paddington in Peru,” the third adventure about the marmalade-loving bear, dropped to third place with $6.5 million from 3,890 cinemas in its second weekend, declining 49% from its debut. So far, the family film has grossed $25.2 million at the domestic box office. Like its predecessors, “Paddington in Peru” has been more popular with international audiences. The $90 million threequel has generated $150 million to date, so it has ways to go to catch up with the first two films in the series: 2014’s “Paddington” ($326 million globally) and 2017’s “Paddington 2” ($290 million globally).
Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s canine crime adventure “Dog Man” remained at No. 4 with $5.9 million from 3,179 venues. The kid-friendly film, which dipped 40% from the weekend prior, has amassed $78.7 million domestically and $104 million globally. It cost $40 million.
Rounding out the top five is Chinese-language animated film “Ne Zha 2” with $3 million from just 800 theaters in its second weekend. The movie’s domestic tally of $14.7 million is impressive for a foreign language film, but it’s nothing compared to the business the sequel is doing in China. “Ne Zha 2” has become a runaway smash in the Middle Kingdom with $1.7 billion and counting, overtaking “Inside Out 2” ($1.66 billion globally) as the biggest animated film in history and eighth-highest grossing release of all time.
