‘Dragon’ still burning up box office
Third installment holds off “Madea.”
LOS ANGELES – “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” topped the box office for a second week, but close on its tail was Tyler Perry’s final installment of the “Madea” franchise. Driven by a largely female audience, “A Madea Family Funeral” had a better-thanexpected debut.
The third installment in the “How to Train Your Dragon” series grossed an estimated $30 million this weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its domestic total just shy of $100 million.
“A Madea Family Funeral” took second at the North American box office with an estimated $27 million, a thirdbest for the 15-year-old franchise. The “Madea” films have never been all that popular with critics – this one splattered out with a 24 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes – but audiences have never seemed to care.
“That character just resonates,” says Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “These films are absolutely critic-proof. The audience has spoken, and they love Madea and they’re saying goodbye.”
Lower on the charts, the Neil Jordan stalker-thriller “Greta,” starring Isabelle Huppert and Chloe Grace Moretz, opened in eighth place to a mediocre $4.6 million.
The acclaimed documentary “Apollo 11,” about the Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin moon landing, opened on 120 IMAX screens to $1.65 million.
Many people, however, used this weekend to catch up with the big winners at last weekend’s Oscars.
Best-picture winner “Green Book” got the biggest Oscars bump, adding $4.7 million and finishing fifth. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” banked an additional $2.1 million, the encore version of “A Star Is Born” with 12 additional minutes of footage added $1.9 million, “Bohemian Rhapsody” earned $975,000, and “The Favourite” took in $825,000.
Rounding out the top five: “Alita: Battle Angel,” produced and co-written by James Cameron, was third with $7 million, and “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” was fourth with $6.6 million.
Overall, though, the box office continues to struggle. Both the year and the weekend are down 26 percent, in part because there hasn’t been any film comparable to “Black Panther,” which accounted for the stellar early-year numbers in 2018.
Marvel is coming back to save the day yet again, however: “Captain Marvel” opens nationwide next weekend.
Final numbers are expected Tuesday.