Alita: Battle Angel has beaten new releases Isn’t It Romantic and the horror sequel Happy Death Day 2U at the box office.The sci-fi fantasy Alita: Battle Angel topped the charts and beat out a number of newcomers including the meta romantic comedy Isn’t It Romantic and the horror sequel Happy Death Day 2U in its first weekend in theaters, but it is a victory with a few caveats. It’s leading the slowest Presidents Day weekend at the box office in almost 20 years and has ways to go to make up its costly budget.
20th Century Fox said Sunday that the James Cameron-produced film earned an estimated 27.8 million dollars over the weekend against a reported 170 million dollars budget, which includes cost-saving tax incentives and rebates. It’s made 36.5 million dollars total since its debut Thursday.
Robert Rodriguez directed the future-set film starring Rosa Salazar as a cyborg with no memory of her past. Critics were mixed on the results, and it’s become just the latest pricey and ambitious non-Star Wars, non-Marvel or DC sci-fi film to do less-than-stellar business at the box office, the last being the Peter Jackson-produced Mortal Engines.
It is quite a tumble (56.4 percent) from last year’s record Presidents Day box office when Black Panther grossed 202 million dollars over the three-day weekend and propelled the industry total to 286.6 million dollars. The weekend has in recent years been host to the openings of high earners from Deadpool to Fifty Shades of Grey. This year, total weekend earnings amount to only 125 million dollars.
The rest of the charts remained fairly lackluster as well. Last week’s champ, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, fell 38 percent in its second weekend earning 21.2 million dollars, bringing its total to 62.7 million dollars— which is less than the first film earned in its opening weekend.
Warner Bros. also had the No. 3 movie this weekend with its meta-romantic-comedy Isn’t It Romantic, starring Rebel Wilson as a woman who bonks her head and wakes up in a rom-com. It debuted to 14.2 million dollars and has earned 20.5 million dollars since its opening earlier in the week.
The other romantic comedy offering in theaters, What Men Want, with Taraji P. Henson, landed in fourth place in its second weekend with 10.9 million dollars. And Happy Death Day 2 U, the horror sequel from Blumhouse and Universal, rounded out the top five with 9.8 million dollars. The first film opened over twice as high, with over 26 million dollars, but with a production budget under 10 million dollars, it’s still bound for success.
The Dwayne Johnson wrestling film Fighting With My Family also opened in four theaters on Wednesday, earning 131,625 dollars over the weekend.
Seven weeks into the new year and the box office is still struggling, down nearly 20 percent from where industry totals were last year.
“We’ve been down every week this year,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “This weekend is emblematic of what is going on at the box office.”
Dergarabedian said that slow weekends beget more slow weekends — with less foot traffic at the theaters, fewer people are seeing previews for what’s to come and the cycle just continues. But Captain Marvel may be coming to save the day on March 8.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Tuesday.
1. Alita: Battle Angel, 27.8 million dollars (56.2 million dollars international).
2. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, 21.2 million dollars (12.1 million dollars international).
3. Isn’t It Romantic, 14.2 million dollars.
4. What Men Want, 10.9 million dollars (2.2 million dollars international).
5. Happy Death Day 2U, 9.8 million dollars (11.8 million dollars international).
6. Cold Pursuit, 6 million (1.5 million dollars international).
7. The Upside, 5.6 million dollars (466,000 dollars international).
8. Glass, 3.9 million dollars (3.6 million dollars international).
9. The Prodigy, 3.2 million dollars.
10. Green Book, 2.8 million dollars (9 million dollars international).
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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to Comscore:
1. The Wandering Earth, 96.9 million dollars.
2. Alita: Battle Angel, 56.2 million dollars.
3. Crazy Alien, 28.2 million dollars.
4. Pegasus, 25.8 million dollars.
5. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, 12.1 million dollars.
6. Happy Death Day 2U, 11.8 million dollars.
7. Boonie Bears: Blast Into the Past, 10.4 million dollars.
8. Green Book, 9 million dollars.
9. Extreme Job, 8.6 million dollars.
10. Ralph Breaks the Internet, 7 million dollars.
