Brave New World’ plants flag in box office top spot

It’s a brave new world for Anthony Mackie, but not for Marvel, which is back to its usual box office domination tricks.

Captain America: Brave New World, the MCU subfranchise’s first outing with Mackie in the lead after Chris Evans‘ departure in 2019, easily beat the competition for the top spot at the weekend box office. The fourth film to center on the star-spangled Avenger since 2011 grossed $28.2 million this weekend in the domestic market, adding to last weekend’s sizable opening numbers for a $141 million domestic total.

That second weekend gross was enough to easily outperform The Monkey, the new big-screen Stephen King adaptation from Osgood Perkins, and Paddington in Peru, the third installment in the adventures of the lovable talking bear, which is also in its second week of release. The Monkey opened with $14.2 million, not quite as high as the $22 million that Perkins’ previous NEON release Longlegs earned its opening weekend, but still the second-highest horror open in the distributor’s history. Paddington in Peru, meanwhile, added $6.5 million to its coffers, which now hold $25 million.

Though Marvel is entitled to celebrate Brave New World‘s continued success, $28.2 million is a significant drop from its $100 million opening gross. It could be the mixed-to-negative reviews, it could be moving from a holiday weekend to a regular one, but the 68% drop represents the third-biggest in the company’s history, behind 2023’s The Marvels (78%) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (69.9%).

This adds to an emergent trend, as the seven worst-performing Marvel films in their second weeks of release all came out after Avengers: Endgame. Phase 5 isn’t a total bust so far, though, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine both performed quite well throughout their theatrical runs, with the latter amassing $395.6 million at the same point where Brave New World currently has $141 million.

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Rounding out the weekend’s top five are the animated family film Dog Man, which earned $5.9 million domestically (for a $78.7 million gross in its fourth week of release), and the Chinese film Ne Zha 2, another animated offering which earned $3 million domestically for a $14.8 million gross in its second week.

The global box office numbers paint a completely different picture, however, with Ne Zha 2 on top with a staggering $156.6 million from only five territories. Compare that to runner-up Brave New World‘s $63.5 million from 53 territories. The sequel to 2019’s popular riff on the Taoist figure of Nezha has accumulated nearly $1.8 billion globally over five weeks in release, making it the ninth highest-grossing IMAX release of all time.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy followed its strong open last weekend with an impressive $19.2 million, reaching a cumulative $67.6 million at the global box office and resoundingly demonstrating that audiences want more romantic comedies!

The Monkey drops from #2 to #4 when you switch from domestic to global, still impressive for a moderately-scaled horror film. It earned $20.8 million globally, and the Indian historical action film Chaava earned $17.8 million this weekend, making for a $54 million global gross in its second week of release.

While next weekend’s roster of new releases include some intriguing-looking titles, nothing poses a significant threat to Brave New World‘s domination, lest it drop off even further. The underwater rescue film Last Breath starring Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu opens alongside the ensemble crime comedy Riff Raff and the Sonequa Martin-Green comedy My Dead Friend Zoe, which costars Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman.