‘Aquaman’ pours it on
It’s No. 1 at the box office again.
In the final weekend of 2018, “Aquaman” still led the pack at the box office, but other films like “Mary Poppins Returns,” “The Mule” and “Second Act” enjoyed post-holiday bumps too, even amid an onslaught of new Christmas offerings like “Vice,” ”Holmes and Watson,” “On the Basis of Sex” and the Netflix phenomenon “Bird Box.”
Warner Bros. said Sunday that “Aquaman” added an estimated
$51.6 million in North American ticket sales over the weekend to take first place again. Down just 24 percent from its domestic debut, the DC Comics pic, which has been No. 1 internationally for four weeks, has now grossed nearly $748.8 million worldwide.
Although other films in theaters were left in “Aquaman’s” wake, more than a few in the top 10 experienced an uncommon increase in returns this weekend.
Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns” ended the weekend up an estimated 19 percent, in second place, with $28 million, and “Bumblebee,” down only 5 percent, settled for third with
$20.5 million.
Up 11 percent, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was fourth with
$18.3 million, and “The Mule,” up 24 percent, took fifth with $11.8 million.
The Jennifer Lopez-led “Second Act,” which got off to a slow start last weekend, also found itself up 11 percent; it earned $7.2 million for seventh place. But the biggest bump of all came for Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” which was up nearly 40 percent in its sixth weekend in theaters after making $6.5 million.
“There is a bit of a lull on the weekend leading into Christmas. People are busy and distracted,” said Comscore’s senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “But the weekend after, most of these films in the top 10 got a bounce.”
This “catch-up” weekend made it a little difficult for the Christmas newcomers to make a huge impact, however, especially when the big wide-releases this time were either politically charged (the Dick Cheney movie “Vice”) or poorly reviewed (“Holmes and Watson,” which is in the single digits on Rotten Tomatoes and got a deathly D+ CinemaScore).
The box-office year as a whole is barreling toward a record $11.9 billion in returns as time runs out on 2018, although final numbers won’t be in from all the studios until midweek.