Box Office Recap: February 17-19, 2023
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania dominates weekend box office with $100+ million debut.
This Presidents Day weekend received a big boost at the box office, thanks to Marvel’s newest film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, receiving a $100 million domestic opening. With this past weekend’s domestic earnings for the top ten films totaling $135.8 million, that marks a box office boost of +187.1% from last weekend’s quiet top ten tally of just $47.3 million. Meanwhile, Oscar-winner James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has finally moved into the top three all-time worldwide earners
Despite mixed reviews from critics and a solid yet not wholly enthusiastic response from moviegoers, Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania walked away with the box office crown, debuting with $104.0 million domestically over the Presidents Day weekend. For comparison, the Paul Rudd led sequel, which is now Marvel’s 31st film in their Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), outperformed the debuts of both its sequels, almost combined even. 2015’s Ant-Man opened with $57.2 million and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp opened with $75.8 million. Internationally, the superhero flick took in $137.3 million, even with China, which is typically a box office boon for major tent-pole films, only bringing in a disappointing $19.2 million for its opening. Altogether, the film’s worldwide debut currently stands at $241.3 million.
It’ll be interesting to see how strong Quantumania’s legs will be in the oncoming weeks. While the film did enjoy the highest opening of any Ant-Man film, it also scored the lowest scored reception of the three movies. Not only is its 48% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes the lowest score for an Ant-Man film – trailing far behind the ratings of Ant-Man (83%) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (87%) – to date, it’s also the second lowest rated film of the entire MCU, behind 2021’s Eternals (47%). More importantly, the film scored lower with moviegoers compared to the previous two films, giving Quantumania an opening weekend CinemaScore of “B”. While many will understandably still view that as a solid score, it’s still a full-grade step down from the opening weekend CinemaScores of both Ant-Man (“A”) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (“A-“).
That said, a near $250 million opening is still hardly anything to be ashamed of, and it’s not like Marvel’s putting an “Out of Business” sign outside their studio doors now. In today’s movie-going world, tent-pole films crossing $1 billion worldwide have become so commonplace we now view any major movie grossing under a billion a bust. It should be noted that neither of the previous two Ant-Man movies grossed a billion or more globally, with Ant-Man earning $519.3 million against a reported $130 million budget and Ant-Man and the Wasp earning $622.7 million against a reported $162 million budget. While no details surrounding Quantumania’s budget have been released, going by the trajectory of the first two films, we can assume it’s probably around the $190-200 million range. Going by the rule of thumb that a film needs to gross over 2-3x its production budget to become profitable, factoring in additional costs like marketing and the percentage of earnings that go to the theater chains, Quantumania is most likely looking at a split-the-difference target of $500 million to break even.
Ultimately, time will tell if Quantumania can overcome its tepid reception, or if this is a sign that the MCU is finally starting to lose its luster.
In the runner-up spot, 20th Century Studios’s Avatar: The Way of Water earned $6.1 million domestically over its tenth weekend in release. This marks just a miniscule -15.2% drop from its prior frame, earning a per-theater average of $2,287 at 2,675 locations. With its domestic total now at $658.5 million, the sci-fi actioner now surpasses 2015’s Jurassic World ($653.4 million) for ninth place on the all-time domestic box office chart. Overall, the James Cameron directed sequel has now grossed $2.244 billion globally, which has edging just inches past Cameron’s other box office smash Titanic ($2.243 billion) for third place on the all-time worldwide box office chart.
Landing in third place, Warner Bros.’s Magic Mike’s Last Dance received a 1,500+ theater expansion over its sophomore weekend, taking in $5.4 million domestically to push its total domestic gross to $18.9 million. Despite the expansion, the dance-themed dramedy’s tally this weekend marked a -35.0% drop from its prior frame, earning a per-theater average of $1,779 at 3,034 locations. Overall, the film has earned $38.5 million worldwide against a reported production budget ranging between $45-50 million.
In fourth place, Universal and DreamWorks’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish continues its strong theatrical run, earning a ninth weekend domestic haul of $5.3 million. This pushes its domestic total to $167.8 million. Overseas, the film has earned $255.6 million, which helps bring the animated adventure sequel’s worldwide total to $423.4 million against a reported production budget of $90 million.
Rounding out the top five, Universal’s Knock at the Cabin grossed $3.9 million over its third weekend in release, pushing its current domestic total to $31.0 million. This marks a modest drop -28.1% from its previous frame, earning a per-theater average of $1,499 at 2,601 locations. Internationally, the film has earned $16.9 million, which brings its total worldwide run to $47.9 million against a $20 million production budget.
Elsewhere within the top ten, in eighth place, Open Road Films’s Marlowe earned $1.9 million domestically over its debut three-day weekend. Overall, the Neil Jordan directed crime noir, which stars Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson as the titular detective, received a five-day weekend beginning on Wednesday, February 15. It’s total five-day domestic opening finished with $3.0 million.
Opening this weekend, Universal Pictures will open Cocaine Bear, their dark comedy actioner directed by Elizabeth Banks and starring Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson, Jr. and the late Ray Liotta in one of his final performances; and Lionsgate debuts their faith-based drama Jesus Revolution, starring Joel Courtney, Jonathan Roumie, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Kelsey Grammer.
* Total worldwide gross listed in parenthesis.
1) Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – $104.0 million, Week 1 ($241.3 million)
2) Avatar: The Way of Water – $6.1 million, Week 10 ($2.244 billion)
3) Magic Mike’s Last Dance – $5.4 million, Week 2 ($38.5 million)
4) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish – $5.3 million, Week 9 ($423.4 million)
5) Knock at the Cabin – $3.9 million, Week 3 ($47.9 million)
6) 80 for Brady – $3.6 million, Week 3 ($32.2 million)
7) Titanic: 25 Year Anniversary – $2.3 million, Week 2 ($2.243 billion)
8) Marlowe – $1.9 million, Week 1 ($3.0 million)
9) Missing – $1.7 million, Week 5 ($29.9 million)
10) A Man Called Otto – $1.6 million, Week 8 ($99.3 million)
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