Box Office: ‘Ant-Man & The Wasp’ Buzzes To $161M Worldwide, ‘The First Purge’ Tallies $31M

1. Ant-Man & the Wasp (review)- $76M
Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp opened with $76M over the weekend, that’s $19M more than 2015’s Ant-Man. So what’s the difference? Well, the sequel had the massive Infinity War to follow, and I’ve long expected there would be some crossover. Everybody wants to see what the MCU looks like post Thanos Snap, although that’s not really what this film was about. It actually took place before and during the big fight with Thanos, but not everybody knew that going in. Worldwide the film has already earned $161M, which looks pretty good when set against the $160M budget. On the downside? It’s still the lowest-grossing sequel Marvel’s ever had, and much of that domestic total came from Friday’s $33M and $11M from Thursday night previews. However, if it has legs like Black Panther and Infinity War have had then this is just a minor concern on the way to being another huge Marvel hit.
2. Incredibles 2– $29M/$504.3M
3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom– $28.5M/$333.3M
Stomping its way to $1.05B, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom next opens in Japan where they love giant destructive lizards.
4. The First Purge (review)- $17.1M/$31M
The politically-charged horror prequel The First Purge nearly tripled its budget with $31M since its Wednesday debut. You can write a check to these movies at this point. The three previous films have all opened at roughly $30M and have usually topped out at around $100M or a little more. The Purge: Election Year leads the pack with $118M, and while I’m not sure this one will hit that mark it doesn’t really need to. We’ll have to see how much, if at all, these films are bolstered by the upcoming TV series.
5. Sicario: Day of the Soldado– $7.3M/$35.3M
6. Uncle Drew– $6.6M/$29.9M
7. Ocean’s 8– $5.2M/$126.7M
8. Tag- $3.1M/$48.3M
9. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?- $2.5M/$12.3M
10. Deadpool 2– $1.6M/$314.5M