Ant-Man's tiny triumph at the box office

Ant-Man became the #1 movie this weekend, but with shrinking grosses for a Marvel film. In fact its $58 million, while decent for any other film, marks the lowest opening for a Marvel brand since 2008's The Incredible Hulk which opened to $55.4 million and ended its run losing money with $134 million domestically ($263 million worldwide). Contrary to the big green guy film, Ant-Man has a slightly lower budget ($130 million) is getting good word-of-mouth buzz and might earn more internationally than domestically (it grossed $56 million in just 37 markets). Why this Marvel film, which seems to be a crowd pleaser, failed to bring the numbers that other Marvel films do? Well, first of all there is the character itself, Ant-Man, one of the least known Marvel characters whose power is just to shrink and talk to ants. That's a tough sell. Second, it opened on the heels of the monster opening of Minions, which took a good chunk of the box office tickets sales on its second week grossing $50.2 million for a close second place. Families had to decide either to watch a cool Marvel movie with a dude that runs with ants or watch the adorable banana loving gibberish talking minions. No match for anyone with children under age 11. Then the adults had the alternative to get a good laugh at the raunchy humor of Amy Schumer in the critically acclaimed Trainwreck which overperformed opening with a smashing $30.2 million. Usually Marvel films that perform great are sequels of well liked films (exception was Guardians of the Galaxy a film that defied all expectations and became a blockbuster hit). Most Marvel films open with little or no competition in sight. 'Ant-Man' wasn't so lucky. Heck, its a miracle it didn't flop nor was a complete disaster after all the trouble its production went through after writer/director left the project just 12 months ago. Anyway, no one was expecting the birth of a franchise with this character, but to add him to the next Marvel film without having to explain how he came to be.

In other news, Inside Out took $11.6 million in the fourth place. The Disney/Pixar film crossed the $300 million mark for a current domestic total of $306 million. Curiously the film has not performed that well overseas. Its current international total is $183.8 million for a global total of $490 million. Jurassic World chomped $11.4 million in the fifth spot. The dino-sequel has a current domestic total of $611 million and $1.511 billion globally. By next week it will replace 'Marvel The Avengers' as the third highest grossing film of all time both domestically and worldwide.

Last but not least, another Bollywood movie opened to great per-screen numbers. Bajrangi Bhaijaan debuted in the 11 spot at 256 screens with $2.4 million, but its per screen average rivaled those of the #3 film 'Trainwreck' which is playing in 3,158 screens. It did not took the #10 spot by just a hair since the critically acclaimed Mr. Holmes also took $2.4 million but beat it by a small margin.

Actual totals will be released on Monday afternoon.

 

'Pixels' has flop written all over it. Ant-Man is getting great buzz with an 'A' in Cinemascore from audiences polled exiting the movie theaters. Maybe the adults that went to watch 'Minions' and 'Trainwreck' might choose 'Ant-Man' over 'Pixels'.

 

Actual numbers are in Ant-Man made a little it less than the estimated report on Sunday with $57.2 million. Minions took $49.2 million; Trainwreck maintained its $30 million and not much change on the other films except for, surprise, Bajrangi Bhaijaan made more than reported and took the 9th spot with $2.6 million pushing Ted 2 to the 10th spot and kicking Mr. Holmes out of the top ten list.