Move over Captain America: Civil War, angry birds are taking over!
Flying to the top of the box office charts is Sony and Rovio’s The Angry Birds Movie with $39 million from 3,932 locations, while the weekend’s others newcomers – Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and The Nice Guys – failed to soar passed the birds.
The family comedy, adapted from the mega-popular app game, scored the third-best animated debut of the year, behind Zootopia ($75.1 million) and Kung Fu Panda ($41.3 million). Angry Birds, featuring the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Sean Penn, Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride and Josh Gad, received a 43 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a B-plus CinemaScore from moviegoers.
“It’s a rare bird,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “The video game aspect is drawing that audience that knows the brand, but then there’s the crossover of family audiences who have really been drawn to PG-rated movies this year. This is a strong showing for the film.”
Dropping to second place is Captain America: Civil War with $33.1 million from 4,266 theaters, accumulating a total of $347.4 million domestically and over $1 billion worldwide. The superhero film, starring Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., is now the seventh highest-grossing Marvel movie.
In third place at the box office is Nicholas Stroller’s newcomer Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising with a decent $21.8 million. The R-rated comedy sequel brings back Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as parents who team up with their former frat-boy rival (Zac Efron) to take down sorority sisters (led by Chloe Grace Moretz). The film, which received a 61 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a B CinemaScore from moviegoers, brought in less than its predecessor ($49 million debut in May 2014).
“That was going to be a hard act to follow, no matter what,” Dergarabedian says. “R-rated comedies do so well in the summer because they’re fresh and funny, but it’s hard to replicate that. It’s usually the original content from that genre that does well.”
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The weekend’s other newcomer was Shane Black’s The Nice Guys with $11.3 million from 2,865 theaters for a fourth place finish. The 1970s noir comedy, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as mismatched detectives, received a 90 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a B-minus CinemaScore from moviegoers.
Rounding out the top five is Disney’s live-action The Jungle Book with $11 million, accumulating a total of $327.5 million domestically since debuting last month. It is expected to top Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at $328.4 million this week as the 44th highest domestic grosser of all time.
“The upcoming Memorial Weekend will boast two solid wide release newcomers with X-Men: Apocalypse and Alice Through the Looking Glass each expected to perform well and in combination with the abundance of widely different content should be a big draw over the extended period that last year saw the debut of Tomorrowland,” Dergarabedian noted.
Top 10 Films at Weekend Box Office: May 20-22
- The Angry Birds Movie — $39 million
- Captain America: Civil War — $33.1 million
- Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising — $21.8 million
- The Nice Guys — $11.3 million
- The Jungle Book — $11.02 million
- Money Monster — $7.1 million
- The Darkness — $2.4 million
- Zootopia — $1.7 million
- The Huntsman: Winter’s War — $1.2 million
- Mother’s Day — $1.12 million
