Captain Marvel Box Office: The Blockbuster Keeps Going Higher, Further, Faster

Brie Larson wearing Nine Inch Nails shirt and SHIELD hat in Captain Marvel

Following its massive opening weekend, there was little doubt that Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Captain Marvel would be able to take the top spot again at the box office, and the film very much lived up to expectations in its second Friday to Sunday. The numbers aren't quite out of this world, as the movie dropped a fairly standard 54 percent, but the amount of money that the blockbuster is pulling in is still quite impressive. Check out the full Top 10 below, and join me after for analysis!

March 15-17, 2019 Box Office Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel had the seventh best debut in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (not factoring in inflation), and it's quickly making its way up the ranks overall. Thanks to the money that it made this weekend, it not only crossed the $200 million line domestically, but also flew past the run totals for Thor: The Dark World, Ant-Man And The Wasp, Doctor Strange, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It's hard to estimate exactly where it will wind up in the rankings over all once its done with its theatrical run, but there's a chance it could wind up in the franchise's Top Five if everything goes according to plan.

The success is very much continuing overseas as well, where the film is actually now the eleventh most successful Marvel international release with a total of $762.1 million. Part of this is because the film has already landed in China, where it has already brought in over $104 million in the last five days. And in case you were wondering, yes, these numbers now make it so that Captain Marvel is the most successful release of 2019 so far, with its totals now surpassing the Chinese blockbuster The Wandering Earth, which dropped into theaters in its home country back in early February.

None of this is surprising at all, of course, as there is no questioning the power of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brand. These films have basically been deemed must-sees by the movie-going public ever since the release of The Avengers back in 2012, and nothing is slowing the film down. In fact, there's a good chance that the only title being released in the next couple of months that will be able to surpass the totals of the Anna Boden/Ryan Fleck film will be Avengers: Endgame, which is expected to be a record-breaker when it lands in theaters worldwide at the end of April.

Brie Larson wearing Nine Inch Nails shirt and SHIELD hat in Captain Marvel

What was good news for Captain Marvel, however, was most definitely not good news for the other new releases that arrived in theaters this weekend - with the exception of Nacho Garcia Velilla's No Manches Frida 2. The Spanish-language comedy (which is a sequel to 2016's No Manches Frida) was released on less than 500 screens nationwide, and not only was it able to make it on to the Top 10, but it landed sixth place. Of course, a haul of $3.9 million isn't exactly extraordinary, but it's definitely significant when you factor in that the movie had the second best per screen average of any other title featured on the chart.

Of the wide releases, Wonder Park (which doesn't have a credited director) actually managed to surpass expectations, as prognosticators suggested that it was only going to make about $10 million in its first three days. Still, things don't look great for the animated film, which apparently on its way to losing a significant amount of money. Having been in development for a number of years, the project had a pre-marketing budget between $80 million and $100 million, and it doesn't appear that the movie's domestic numbers are going to be big enough to make that seem like a worthy investment.

Things didn't exactly go spectacularly for Justin Baldoni's romantic drama Five Feet Apart either, which ranked third with its $13.2 million take. The film got a mixed response from critics, and positive marks from audiences (it has an "A" on CinemaScore), but the numbers don't exactly compare to the similarly themed The Fault In Our Stars from a few years ago, which had a $48 million opening, and went on to make $307.2 million worldwide. Obviously this film is not going to go that distance.

The third and final wide release for the weekend was Rupert Wyatt's Captive State, which also failed to get any kind of legitimate attention - despite featuring a fantastic ensemble cast including John Goodman, Vera Farmiga, Ashton Sanders, Alan Ruck, James Ransone, and more. Unfortunately, it seems that audiences were really only interested in seeing one alien invasion movie this week, and while fans flocked to Captain Marvel, Captive State was left forced to settle for seventh place.

Lastly I'll shine a quick spotlight on Mike Mitchell's The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part - which completed its sixth week of release on Sunday with an eighth place finish. With the additional $2.1 million added to its domestic total, the movie has now become the fifth 2019 title to make more than $100 million here at home (the others being The Upside, Glass, How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and Captain Marvel). The film definitely isn't doing as well as its predecessor, which made over $250 million by the time it was done with theaters in 2014, but a milestone is still a milestone.

Coming up we have a very interesting showdown, as there's only one new release coming out on Friday, but it's a big one. Expectations are through the roof for Jordan Peele's Get Out follow-up, Us, and the new title could wind up surpassing the Oscar-winning feature's first three day total ($33.4 million). But will it be enough to dethrone Captain Marvel? It should ultimately make for one of the most exciting head-to-head matchups we've seen so far this year, and it will be exciting to see which movie walks away the big winner. Of course, you'll be able to find all of the details here on Sunday when the numbers come in and we do our full analysis, so be sure to come back then!

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.