1. Wonder Woman (review)- $100.5M
I think if we were all tied up in the Golden Lasso of Truth, we'd admit to being a little worried Wonder Woman would perform below expectations, and ruin the chances of more female-centric superhero movies. Fortunately, that is NOT going to be the case. Wonder Woman opened with a whopping $100.5M domestic, the biggest ever for a female director besting Catherine Hardwicke's Twilight, and Sam Taylor-Johnson's Fifty Shades of Grey. Worldwide it captured $223M. All of this began with a hefty $11M on Thursday previews and $38M on Friday, which placed it in line with analyst projections. By the way, this is the biggest DC Comics opening ever for a film not featuring Batman or Superman. Want to guess what was #1 before now? Constantine. Yep, that Constantine, the one with Keanu Reeves, which opened at $75M in 2005. Crazy, right? Anyway, this proves that a female-led comic book movie with mostly female talent (the writers were dudes, but whatever) can do better than its male counterparts. Now let's see what Marvel does with Captain Marvel.
2. Captain Underpants (review) - $23.5M
Dreamworks Animation's adaptation of bestselling children's book Captain Underpants opened with $23.5M, which is pretty low by the studio's standards. However, the Kevin Hart/Ed Helms voiced 'toon only cost $39M and is earning pretty good reviews, which could mean a lot of kiddies spread the word at school. Besides, Dreamworks films tend to stay in theaters for a long time, and I suspect this one will, too. It's really too good of a movie to pass up on and I hope parents listen to their kids and take the whole family to see it.
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales- $21.6M/$114.6M
Pirates 5 tumbled 65% for $21.6M, but has still earned $501M worldwide up to this point.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2- $9.7M/$355.4M
5. Baywatch- $8.5M/$41.7M
Well, the Rock may be right in the end. Baywatch fell 54% from last week but has now earned $41M domestic and $67M worldwide, just shy of its still-inexplicable $69M budget. Seriously, it looked no better than a standard episode of the old TV series. How could it cost that much? Anyway, this one is likely to turn at least a tiny profit.
6. Alien: Covenant- $4M/$67.2M
7. Everything, Everything- $3.3M/$28.3M
8. Snatched- $1.3M/$43.8M
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul- $1.2M/$17.8M
10. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword- $1.1M/$37.1M
And not to go unnoticed, Band Aid, one of my favorite movies out of Sundance and of the year at this point, opened in 3 locations and earned $31K. Written, directed, and starring Life in Pieces' Zoe Lister-Jones, the film also stars Adam Pally and Fred Armisen, centering on a married couple who turn their arguments into rock songs. It's a fun movie with some unexpectedly raw moments, and is worth checking out when it hits VOD next week. But it's worth noting because Lister-Jones employed an all-female crew, as well. Wonder Woman's got nothin' on her.
