Marvel wants to whet the appetites of filmgoers, to not leave less avid Avengers fans in the dark about the convoluted “history” they may have forgotten when “Avengers: Doomsday” lumbers into theaters in December.
And they’d love to add a pile of found-money to the books of “Avengers: Endgame,” which they’ve re-released this weekend for a “get reacquainted” “Encore” release. It’s paying off as the 2019 film is on track to collect a fresh $24 million+ which will move itself closer to $900 million, still well short of the Trumpflation era “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
That should edge the “Resident Evil” reboot, which is cruising to a $22 million weekend. That’s a whopping 74 percent plunge from its heady $60 million opening weekend, which means its exhausted its franchise fan appeal and that few others give a hoot it.
A Brad Pitt-and-his-war-dog tale and Robert Pattinson’s best shot at awards season fanfare are dueling for third place, with both films set to collect $20 million+ on a weekend with a nor’easter rattling more populous movie-going corners of the country.
“Heart of the Beast” is a quite-conventional surviving the Alaskan wilderness thriller, and is earning decent enough reviews for Pitt and the German Shepherd named Uber.
“Primetime,” so-starring Merritt Weaver, Anna Faris and Skyler Gisondo, with former NBC News chief Jeff Zucker shamelessly appearing as himself, is also earning mixed-to-positive notices.
Fifth place will go to another new release, Dreamworks Animation’s non-franchise, girl-centered tale “Forgotten Island,” which is on course for a very humbling $10-13 million opening weekend.
It’ll be interesting to see if “Avengers: Endgame” will hasten the falloff of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which dominated the summer and has steadily closed-in on the $1 billion mark at the domestic box office (over $950 million+ by weekend’s end)
“Practical Magic 2,” unless its steep fade drops it behind “Brand New Day” or “The Odyssey,.” should hang on to sixth with those two blockbusters seventh and eighth.
“Coyote vs Acme” may cling to ninth.
But it’s anybody’s guess whether the Biblical sleeper “Daniel and the Fiery Furnace,” “Insidious” or “Runner” will cling to the top ten in tenth.
A pretty good Japanese ghost story tale in limited release, “Never After Dark,” won’t crack the top ten.
Check back here over the weekend as I’ll be updating these numbers as Sat. and Sunday data comes out.
