‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ dethrones ‘Panther’
NEW YORK – It took six weeks, but Black Panther has finally been unseated as the top film at the North American box office. The monsters vs. robots science-fiction sequel Pacific Rim Uprising dethroned the superhero sensation with $28 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
But the result for Uprising, a Universal Pictures-Legendary Entertainment release that cost $150 million to make, was soft — at least domestically. Like the recently released Tomb Raider, its biggest business was in China.
And even though Black Panther slid to second place with $16.7 million in its sixth weekend, Ryan Coogler’s film notched another box office milestone. It’s now the highest-grossing superhero film ever in North America, not accounting for inflation. The film’s $631 million in domestic ticket sales has surpassed the $623 million of 2012’s The Avengers. Black Panther also becomes the fifthhighest-grossing film of all time, rising above Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Black Panther has been followed by a string of lackluster box office perform- ers, including Tomb Raider (now No. 5), A Wrinkle in Time (No. 6) and Red Sparrow. Uprising may have taken down Black Panther, but a blockbuster heir still hasn’t been found. Next weekend, Steven Spielberg will try with his bigbudget virtual-reality spectacle Ready Player One.
MGM and Paramount Pictures’ animated family sequel Sherlock Gnomes disappointed with a fourth-place $10.6 million debut. Forecasts had been higher for the sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet, which grossed $194 million worldwide in 2011.
The results were also modest for Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane, a psychological thriller starring Claire Foy ( The Crown) that the director shot with iPhones. The film opened with $3.9 million in 2,023 theaters.
But there were bright spots. The Christian drama I Can Only Imagine held especially strongly in its second weekend. The Lionsgate-Roadside Attractions release grossed $13.8 million to bring its two-week total to $38.5 million and put it in third place. I Can Only Imagine has emerged as the clear faithbased film of choice ahead of Easter, likely to the detriment of Paul: Apostle of Christ, which took in $5 million over the weekend for Sony’s Affirm Films.
And in limited release, Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs got off to a healthy start with $1.6 million in 27 theaters. Fox Searchlight, coming off its best-picture win at the Academy Awards for The Shape of Water, carefully selected the opening-weekend theaters to cater to Anderson’s die-hard fans.
“We just wanted to be out there to give his audience an opportunity to find the film,” said Frank Rodriguez, distribution head for Searchlight.
Final figures are expected Monday.