“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” seemed overly praised when it opened last week. To me, it’s more of a shrug than “the best Marvel movie” since this or that. The swooning by a few seemed unwarranted.
Audiences made it a record setter on its opening weekend. But this weekend, word of mouth tamped that down quite a bit. It did a perfectly ordinary 40% of what it did on opening weekend, not even enough to tally a second win in the weekend box office race. Well under $40 million. Nothing to sneeze at, but the bloom is off the rose, there.
“Rio 2,” which isn’t very good at all, with reviews reflecting that, is performing just over expectations — $43 million or more, based on Friday and still dependent on the all-important-for-kids-movies Saturday take. The original was good enough that families considered it a safe bet, critics be darned.
The biggest horror openings, generally sequels, open in the $20s, typically — mid-to-upper $20s if they have the hype, the reviews, etc., to give them a push. “Oculus” only managed to reach the mid-teens ($13-14). Those are right around “Insidious” numbers, which, if reviews are to be believed, mean it will perform better over the log haul than on opening weekend.
The best the weakly-reviewed NFL drama “Draft Day” was going to do was $10-12, and that’s just what it’s doing.
“God’s Not Dead”, but life signs are finally fading on this low budget indie phenomenon. It added theaters but slipped quite a bit as it nears the $40 million mark, overall.
Movie Nation 
I absolutely loved Captain America and don’t see it as overhyped. Rio 2 was easy to predict. I have no interest in it but around here the first film was big. I’m not surprised part two drew an audience.