Captain America keeps up good fight

George Clooney stars as George Gates in TriStar’s Money Monster. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $15 million.
George Clooney stars as George Gates in TriStar’s Money Monster. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $15 million.

LOS ANGELES -- When Captain America and Iron Man fight it out, all others take a seat, as seen at last week's box office as Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios' Captain America: Civil War outperformed the two new releases, TriStar Pictures' Money Monster and The Darkness from Focus Features' High Top Releasing unit.

In its second week, Captain America pulled in another estimated $72.6 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, meeting analyst expectations. That is a week-to-week drop of 59 percent from its record-setting debut of $179 million the week before. Last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron experienced a similar drop from its debut gross.

Coming in second place, beating the new releases in its fifth week, was Disney's The Jungle Book. The remix of the classic Rudyard Kipling tale added about $17 million for a total domestic gross to date of $311 million. The picture also continues to perform well internationally, with ticket sales surpassing the $500 million mark.

TriStar's Money Monster took home the third spot with a debut of about $15 million, well ahead of analysts' and the studio's $10 million expectations.

"It's always a risk you take when you open any film in the wake of a huge film like Captain America," said Rory Bruer, TriStar's distribution chief. "It's not easy to open a movie in the wake of something so huge, [but] the best thing going for the film is the film itself."

The R-rated, socially conscious thriller stars George Clooney as a charismatic financial TV personality who winds up in trouble when an angry investor takes the studio hostage. Julia Roberts also stars in it as Jodie Foster directs.

The Darkness, from famed horror producer Jason Blum, landed in fourth place with about $5 million. Analysts projected what would normally be deemed a poor performance of less than $10 million, but Blum's firm Blumhouse Productions said $4 million to $5 million would be a success.

Audiences and critics are not overwhelmingly pleased with the picture. Moviegoers gave it a C CinemaScore -- which is par for other low-budget horror flicks like the latest of the Paranormal Activity franchise which Blum also produces -- while the film has a 0 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The supernatural thriller starring Kevin Bacon only cost in the single-digit millions, but is part of an experiment by the firm's releasing label BH Tilt to save marketing and distribution money by releasing movies in fewer theaters and specifically targeting horror genre fans through digital media.

"As BH Tilt continues to experiment with new ways to market and distribute genre movies, we are pleased that a digitally heavy, targeted campaign helped The Darkness generate a solid opening in line with our goals," said John Hegeman, who oversees the unit.

The company tried the strategy with last year's cannibal movie The Green Inferno to middling results. That movie took in $3.5 million in its debut, and tapped out at $7.2 million.

In fifth place was Open Road's Mother's Day, which pulled in about $3.3 million in its third week. The comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts and Kate Hudson has grossed about $29 million domestically to date.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

  1. Captain America: Civil War, Disney, $72,637,142, 4,226 locations, $17,188 average, $295,966,220, 2 weeks.
  2. The Jungle Book, Disney, $17,115,708, 3,970 locations, $4,311 average, $311,111,818, 5 weeks.
  3. Money Monster, TriStar, $14,788,157, 3,104 locations, $4,764 average, $14,788,157, 1 week.
  4. The Darkness, High Top Releasing, $4,950,859, 1,755 locations, $2,821 average, $4,950,859, 1 week.
  5. Mother's Day, Open Road, $3,287,342, 3,291 locations, $999 average, $28,785,462, 3 weeks.
  6. Zootopia, Disney, $2,825,734, 1,935 locations, $1,460 average, $331,840,173, 11 weeks.
  7. The Huntsman: Winter's War, Universal, $2,629,825, 2,518 locations, $1,044 average, $44,589,075, 4 weeks.
  8. Keanu, Warner Bros., $1,924,383, 2,120 locations, $908 average, $18,636,886, 3 weeks.
  9. Barbershop: The Next Cut, Warner Bros., $1,668,455, 1,333 locations, $1,252 average, $51,349,157, 5 weeks.
  10. The Boss, Universal, $1,197,715, 1,350 locations, $887 average, $61,159,415, 6 weeks.
  11. Ratchet & Clank, Focus Features, $629,742, 1,258 locations, $501 average, $8,146,999, 3 weeks.
  12. Sing Street, The Weinstein Co., $619,970, 525 locations, $1,181 average, $1,893,105, 5 weeks.
  13. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Warner Bros., $520,813, 744 locations, $700 average, $328,200,056, 8 weeks.
  14. The Man Who Knew Infinity, IFC Films, $508,676, 192 locations, $2,649 average, $917,051, 3 weeks.
  15. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Universal, $489,485, 717 locations, $683 average, $58,977,375, 8 weeks.
  16. Green Room, A24, $411,376, 777 locations, $529 average, $2,707,971, 5 weeks.
  17. The Meddler, Sony Pictures Classics, $372,941, 127 locations, $2,937 average, $1,106,114, 4 weeks.
  18. Eye in the Sky, Bleecker Street, $366,628, 360 locations, $1,018 average, $17,892,030, 10 weeks.
  19. Hello, My Name Is Doris, Roadside Attractions, $248,189, 259 locations, $958 average, $13,779,669, 10 weeks.
  20. A Hologram for the King, Roadside Attractions, $233,962, 346 locations, $676 average, $3,872,883, 4 weeks.

MovieStyle on 05/20/2016

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