The Marvel movie’s box office takings have been of particular interest to analysts, given the concerted efforts by trolls, bots and misogynists to drag down its audience review scores on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, and ‘dislike’ any related videos on YouTube. And while the film’s critics’ reviews haven’t quite been glowing (most sit around the three-star mark), the CinemaScore grade from bona-fide audience members is ‘A’ on an A+ to F scale, and the box office takings are now speaking for themselves.
Captain Marvel is reported by outlets including Forbes to be on track for an enormous $ 455 million opening worldwide.
Given how movies’ releases around the globe are often staggered, like-for-like comparisons are tricky – but it’s eye-catching that its number even tops the likes of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017 ($ 450.8 million).
It’s also higher than Batman V Superman ($ 422.5 million) as well as Black Panther ($ 371 million – though it didn’t open in China straight away, where Captain Marvel has had particular success).
Captain Marvel has the sixth highest global bow ever; behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($ 483.2 million), Jurassic World ($ 525.5m), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($ 529m), Fate of the Furious ($ 541.9m) and Avengers: Infinity War ($ 640.5m).
In the USA alone, ComicBook.com notes that Captain Marvel’s opening weekend already makes it the highest-grossing film of 2019 so far.
Of course with the likes of Avengers: Endgame, Frozen 2, Star Wars 9 and The Lion King still to come, it’s unlikely to hold that title for long.
But it’s still incredibly impressive: $ 153 million is the second biggest solo superhero debut in history, behind Black Panther ($ 202 million).
It’s also the third best March bow of all time, behind Batman V Superman ($ 166m) and Beauty and the Beast ($ 174m).
Looking at it in the context of the MCU as a whole, it is seventh in terms of opening weekends in North America, out of 21 movies thus far.
Some of Captain Marvel’s detractors were trying to launch the #AlitaChallenge – asking people to boycott the Marvel film by seeing Alita instead.
Alas, Alita’s box office takings decreased around 55% this weekend, according to Deadline yesterday.
The whole furore started when Brie Larson, the headline star of Captain Marvel, noted in interviews that she wants to diversify press junkets.
Some of the darker corners of the internet claimed that made her “anti-white-men”; a sentiment she explicitly shot down when she first made her plea last year.
Captain Marvel is out now.
