A few weeks ago, before Captain America: Civil War hits theaters this weekend, box office prognosticators estimated that the movie would open up between $175 million to $200 million. When the reviews started to come out, with an incredibly strong reception, some thought the movie could make more than $200 million this weekend, but it turns out that those initial predictions were on point. Captain America: Civil War opened this weekend with an estimated take of $181.7 million, falling short of the debuts of Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.2 million) and The Avengers ($207.4 million) for the third best debut in the MCU.
According to Box Office Mojo, Captain America: Civil War debuted in 4,226 theaters, posting a monster $43,017 per-screen average. The movie is already a hit with critics, posting an impressive 91% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, down slightly from the 94% rating posted earlier this week. The movie was the only new release to hit theaters this weekend, kicking off the lucrative summer movie season.
Steve Rogers leads a newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. The action is set in the aftermath of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Following another incident involving the Avengers that results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps, one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark's surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.
Team Iron Man includes Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Vision (Paul Bettany), War Machine (Don Cheadle) and the new characters T'challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland). Team Cap includes Captain America (Chris Evans), The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). Captain America: Civil War also stars Frank Grillo as Crossbones and William Hurt, reprising his role from The Incredible Hulk as Thaddeus Ross.
Captain America: Civil War will kick off the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Three, which will be followed by Doctor Strange on November 4, 2016). Next up will be Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May 5, 2017), followed by Spider-Man (July 7, 2017), Thor: Ragnarok (November 3, 2017), Black Panther (February 16, 2018), Avengers: Infinity War Part I (May 4, 2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6, 2018), Captain Marvel (March 8, 2019) and Avengers: Infinity War - Part II (May 3, 2019). The studio recently pushed Inhumans out of its July 12, 2019 release date, which was originally slated to be the last Phase Three movie, but the project doesn't have a new release date at this time.
The arrival of Captain America: Civil War brings an end to The Jungle Book 's three-week reign atop the box office, with this Disney adventure dropping to second place this weekend with $21.8 million. Disney's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's timeless literary classic has taken in $284.9 million domestically and $776.1 million worldwide after opening in theaters on April 15. Also rounding out the top 5 this weekend will be holdovers Mother's Day ($9 million), The Huntsman: Winter's War ($3.5 million), Keanu ($3.08 million). Mother's Day actually posted a 7.6% increase from its $8.3 million debut last weekend, which makes sense because today is actually Mother's Day.
Rounding out the top 10 are Barbershop: The Next Cut ($3.2 million), Zootopia ($2.9 million), Ratchet & Clank ($2.6 million), The Boss ($2.1 million) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($1.5 million). This will most likely be Batman v Superman's last week in the top 10, but it has put together an impressive box office run, earning $325.1 million domestically and $862.8 million worldwide. Also opening in limited release this weekend is Fox Searchlight's A Bigger Splash, which earned $110,000 from five theaters for a $22,000 per-screen average. The Star Wars documentary Elstree 1976 earned a paltry $3,000 from 14 theaters for a horrid $214 per-screen average, and Sony Classics' documentary Dark Horse didn't fare much better, earning $4,891 from three theaters for a $1,630 per-screen average. Paladin's Being Charlie earned $13,650 from four theaters for a $3,413 per-screen average and IFC's Dheepan earned $22,760 from two theaters for a $11,380 per=screen average. No box office data was released for Shout! Factor's horror movie Bite and IFC's Pele: Birth of a Legend.
Looking ahead to next weekend, Marvel's Civil War will square off against two new movies in wide release, Sony's financial thriller Money Monster starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and High Top Releasing's The Darkness starring Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell. A number of indies will also open in limited release next weekend, such as Magnolia's High-Rise, Well Go USA's Kill Zone 2, Broad Green Pictures' Last Days in the Desert, A24's The Lobster, Roadside Attractions' Love & Friendship, Focus World's Search Party and Magnolia's Sunset Song. Be sure to check back on Sunday for the box office estimates, and again on Tuesday for next week's predictions. Until then, take a look at our predictions for the weekend of May 6.