‘Ant-Man’ buzzes to $76M debut
NEW YORK — Despite its heroes’ diminutive size, Ant-Man and the Wasp opened with typical Marvel might, with an estimated $76 million in ticket sales.
According to studio estimates Sunday, the Ant-Man sequel easily surpassed the $57 million debut of the 2015 original in North America. The 20th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and the 20th to debut No. 1 at the box office — Ant-Man and the Wasp comes on the heels of two Marvel successes: Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War.
While the first Ant-Man, starring Paul Rudd, had a rocky road to release due to a late director change, the rollout of the sequel, directed by Peyton Reed, was smoother. Cathleen Taff, head of distribution for Disney, credited a marketing campaign that played up the film as a more modest, funny and light-hearted changeof-pace for Marvel following the grandiosity of Infinity War.
“It came in at the high end of our range and definitely sized-up the sequel,” said Taff.
Ant-Man and the Wasp, with a reported production budget of about $160 million, may have performed well enough to firmly establish its place among Marvel’s more main-line superheroes. Reviews were good (86 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences gave it an A-minus CinemaScore. Ticket sales overseas added another $85 million.
The weekend’s other new wide release was Blumhouse Productions’ The First Purge, the fourth film in the low-budget horror franchise about an annual 12-hour period of lawlessness.
The First Purge debuted with $32 million over the five-day frame, and $18.5 million for the weekend. Particularly following 2016’s The Purge: Election Year, the franchise has made satirical jabs at social issues.
The First Purge, a prequel, focuses on the ritual’s origins as a method of culling minorities.
“Blumhouse just continues to overdeliver for us,” said Jim Orr, distribution chief for Blumhouse’s distribution partner, Universal. “The Purge franchise continually comments on issues that are current in society, obviously through a kind of dark and distorted lens.”
The films that trailed Ant-Man hit their own milestones. Disney’s
Incredibles 2 passed Finding Dory to become Pixar’s top-grossing film domestically, not accounting for inflation. It earned $29 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $504 million and its worldwide haul to $773 million.