Overall business for the month of March is set to end on a huge note.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is clearly a box office monster (I'm heading out to see it in just a little bit). Despite surprisingly negative critical reception (a tepid 30% on Rotten Tomatoes), the expected start of the DC Extended Universe opened to a massive $82 million on Friday. That includes a huge $27.7 million on Thursday night previews ($54.3 million actual Friday gross). For opening days, that ranks as the fourth-best in history behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the last Harry Potter movie, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. It's also narrowly ahead of Jurassic World ($81.9 million) and the first Avengers ($80.8 million).
At its current pace, Dawn of Justice will unseat The Hunger Games ($152.2 million) for the biggest opening weekend ever for a movie debuting outside of the summer or Christmas season (biggest Easter and March openings ever also). Dawn of Justice only had a "B" CinemaScore, which while better than the critical reception, still shows somewhat mixed word-of-mouth for audiences (Man of Steel had an A-). Saturday will drop, while Easter Sunday may lessen the drop slightly. I'd say look for another $50-55 million on Saturday followed by another $35 million or so on Sunday. My official weekend prediction, $170 million, which would rank as the fifth-biggest opening weekend in history.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 got off to a solid start of its own in the face of competition with $7.7 million on Friday in third place. With an "A-" CinemaScore (reviews were negative at 25% on Rotten Tomatoes), this could hold OK over the weekend. Look for an opening weekend around $20 million, which would beat its $18 million budget handily in just one weekend.
As for the holdovers, Zootopia keeps on bringing in the crowds. Disney's smash hit earned another $9.7 million on Good Friday, but won't tick up much over the weekend as many kids are already on Spring Break. Look for a $25 million weekend. The Divergent Series: Allegiant, on the other hand, cascaded 69% from its opening day to $3.7 million, in what will likely be a weekend just short of $10 million. Miracles from Heaven fared better, off just 21% from last Friday to $3.3 million, and should find itself in the $9-10 million range for the weekend as well (with Easter to boost its numbers a bit).
That's about it. Weekend report coming tomorrow night. I will have reviews of The Young Messiah, Batman v. Superman and Miracles from Heaven (which I'm seeing on Tuesday) up next week (which is my Spring Break from work and college).
