Box Office: ‘Aquaman’ Swims Towards $750M Worldwide As ‘Vice’ Tops ‘Holmes & Watson’

1. Aquaman– $51.5M/$188.7M
Aquaman continued to rule, diving just 29% for $51.5M in its second full week of release. While $200M domestic is a given and should be achieved in a matter of days, it’s the $748M worldwide that is truly impressive. Already that’s more than the overall haul for Justice League, Man of Steel, and Suicide Squad, while Batman v Superman’s $873M is definitely in sight.
2. Mary Popppins Returns– $28.M/$98.9M
After a soft debut, Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns did exactly what they hoped it would. The magical sequel saw a boost of 19% in its second week, adding $28M for a two-week total of $98M. Overall, the $174M worldwide number is a solid start for a film that’s likely to hang to stick around for a while as the top family-friendly offering…sorry, Bumblebee.
3. Bumblebee– $20.5M/$66.7M
The excellent Bumblebee actually did well, dropping just 5% for a total of $20M and $66M domestic. But it would look a lot better if there wasn’t Aquaman, Into the Spider-Verse, and Mary Poppins Returns to contend with. At $156M worldwide and some big territories left to cover, this could still turn out to be a win for Paramount. The reviews are excellent, and there’s genuine interest in continuing this less bombastic direction for the franchise, post-Michael Bay.
4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse– $18.3M/$103.6M
5. The Mule– $11.7M/$60.7M
6. Vice (review)- $7.7M/$17.6M
The most “serious” film to open this holiday (well, other than Welcome to Marwen which was the suck), Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney film Vice opened early in the week and has $17.6M over six days. I still don’t know what to expect from this in the long haul; there’s definite Oscar buzz for Christian Bale’s performance but whether that translates into a noticeable box office boost is another story.
7. Holmes & Watson– $7.3M/$19.7M
People have been begging for a Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly reunion in Step Brothers 2, but I think the prospects of that happening just took a nosedive. This whole has seen their detective comedy killed by critics (it was at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes for a while), by audiences (Cinemascore of D+), and in the news as word broke Netflix had rejected an offer to buy it. But the box office actually isn’t atrocious, as $19M is about half of its production budget. This is still low for a Ferrell comedy, and chances are it won’t stick around very long so if you really want to see it, better go soon.
8. Second Act– $7.2M/$21.7M
9. Ralph Breaks the Internet– $6.5M/$175.7M
10. Dr. Seuss The Grinch– $4.2M/$265.5M