The mixed reception of “Marvel Studios”Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” weighs heavier than expected on its box office. The film made just $8.2 million on its second Friday — a colossal 82% drop from its opening day of $46.4 million — and its weekend total is set to drop 71. % compared to $106 million last weekend to $30 million this weekend.
If that number holds, “Quantumania” will have suffered the largest second-weekend percentage drop of any Marvel Studios release and any superhero movie with a domestic opening weekend of over 100 million. of dollars.
As die-hard fans turned out as they reliably do on opening weekend and boosted the movie’s viewership rotten tomatoes 84% score, B CinemaScore and PostTrak score of 3.5/5 suggested casual audience interest would plummet as it did for DC’s “Black Adam” last year. But those weekend totals are lower than the $35 million to $38 million analysts had predicted and suggest “Quantumania” won’t gross much more than $200 million in North America as March blockbusters like “Creed III” will catch the public’s attention in the coming weeks.
It is possible that Universal “Cocaine Bear” played a secondary role in this big drop in “Quantumania” as competition for mainstream audiences, especially young male moviegoers who typically show up for blockbusters.
Elizabeth Banks’ R-rated comedy thriller grossed $7.6 million on its opening day from 3,534 theaters and is now estimated to make $21 million on opening weekend. Trackers projected a mid-to-high teen opening for “Cocaine Bear” with the possibility of hitting $20 million if word-of-mouth was strong enough, and it looks like this movie did just that.
Still, the early reception suggests an early run for “Cocaine Bear” similar to what “Quantumania” is facing. While rotten tomatoes scores are generally positive at 70% from critics and 75% from audiences, CinemaScore polls returned a lukewarm B-. With 95 minutes of a cocaine-addicted bear mauling hapless humans, “Cocaine Bear”‘s appeal may be limited beyond its opening weekend crowd, though it should be able to turn a decent profit against its $35 million production budget.
In third place at the box office is Lionsgate/Kingdom Story Company’s “Jesus Revolution,” which beat forecasts with an estimated opening weekend of $14.5 million in 2,475 theaters. The film earned $6.95 million on opening day, including $3.3 million from preview screenings on Wednesday and Thursday.
The true story of the faith-based film chronicles the “Jesus Revolution” movement of the early ’70s which sought to connect Christianity with hippie culture. As with most faith-based films, “Jesus Revolution” received mixed reviews from critics with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 55%, but rave reviews from Christian audiences with an A+ on CinemaScore and an RT score of 99. % audience.
