New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Black Panther faced its first challenge to its box office dominance in A Wrinkle In Time, but still won the weekend with relative ease, as it continues to make some box office history.

For the fourth weekend in a row (for the first time since Star Wars: The Force Awakens!) Black Panther is the #1 movie, adding another $41.1 million to its lofty total, as it has now earned $562 million in four weekends, making it the seventh biggest movie of all time. Add in international grosses and it has already crossed $1 billion worldwide. Black Panther did find itself briefly bumped out of the top spot on Friday, but the expected strong Saturday and Sunday put it back on top by a solid margin. The weekend declines still manage to be solid, as it dropped just 38% for the weekend. It was also underestimated yet again last weekend, so expect a couple million more to be added when the actuals come in.

Now the fun stuff: we should be looking at a $600 million movie after next weekend, and then we look to see if it can crack the all-time top five, when it would need to pass both The Last Jedi ($619.4 million) and The Avengers ($623.3). That should happen in two more weekends, if Black Panther continues along its current pace. Beyond that, third and fourth are also sandwiched together, with Jurassic World ($652.2 million) and Titanic ($659.3 million). It would need another $100 million beyond that before reaching Avatar, so as of this moment the most likely landing spot for Black Panther is merely the third biggest film of all time with around $700 million. Two months ago, even the most optimistic of box office projections couldn’t have predicted this. Wakanda forever, indeed.

Taking second place is the film adaptation of the young adult fantasy novel A Wrinkle In Time, getting a big budget treatment with production from and starring Oprah Winfrey. With a fair amount of anticipation, A Wrinkle In Time upset Black Panther on Friday, briefly ending its long run at #1, but Black Panther rebounded massively over the weekend, leaving A Wrinkle In Time in second with a weekend of $33.3 million. That’s a decent opening, but I am sure Disney was banking on more. What likely kept it from breaking out larger were its reviews, rating just 42% at Rotten Tomatoes. The reported budget was $100 million, so A Wrinkle In Time has a fair amount of work to do to make that back after this start. Special note for this weekend, not only is Disney showing its box office dominance these days, but the top two films this weekend are also by black directors (Ryan Coogler for Black Panther, and Ava DuVernay for A Wrinkle In Time), and that’s not something that’s happened often before, if at all. The next generation of minority filmmakers have very likely been inspired by the last month, and that’s a great thing.

There were actually three new releases in the top ten this weekend (a fourth, Gringo, just missed in 11th with $2.6 million), giving us the first really big shakeup in the top ten in a while. Third place goes to horror entry The Strangers: Prey at Night with $10.4 million, about in line with expectations. A sequel to 2008’s The Strangers, I’m not sure why anybody waited 10 years to make a sequel to a film that opened to $20.9 million and finished with $52.5 million, but there you go. The good news here is, like any horror film worth its salt, Prey at Night was made on the cheap; it only cost $5 million, so it’s a win for the fledgling Aviron Pictures.

Jennifer Lawrence’s Red Sparrow takes the biggest dip in the top ten, dropping 52% from last weekend to $8.1 million. It has earned $31.1 million after two weekends. The biggest loser here will be Lawrence, taking a big hit to her potential as a box office draw outside of franchises. After earning $20 million for Passengers and a reported $15-20 million salary for Red Sparrow, it’s becoming difficult to justify that cost when she’s not Katniss or Mystique.

Game Night has the best hold in the top ten, down just 24% from last weekend to $7.9 million and $45 million after three weekends. Basically having a monopoly on comedy right now is the main thing in its favor right now. There’s minimal risk here when selecting Game Night as a date movie, as sometimes life just makes you want to see something funny.

Family entry Peter Rabbit places sixth with $6.8 million, off 32% from last weekend, and it’s approaching the $100 million mark with $93.4 million after five weekends. A quiet big win here, we’ll be looking at Peter Rabbit’s box office at the end of the year and forget this happened and be amazed all over again.

Bruce Willis’ Death Wish remake drops to seventh, dipping 49% to $6.6 million and $23.8 million in two weekends. Keeping the drop to around 50% was the best case scenario here, and it’ll make its reported $30 million budget back by next weekend so MGM should be happy with what they get.

Another new release is in eighth place, as the completely ridiculous The Hurricane Heist earned just $3.1 million on the weekend, showing audiences weren’t fooled by this nonsense. Somehow rating 33% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, The Hurricane Heist will thankfully be forgotten after this weekend, and its $35 million reported negative cost far, far out of reach.

Sci-fi disappointment Annihilation places ninth with $3.1 million and just $26 million after three weekends. The $40 million reported negative production cost is going to make this one hurt a little bit for Paramount, who was banking on the novel adaptation’s talented cast to carry the film.

For (we think) the last time, we have to talk about Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, falling to tenth place, dropping 38% to $2.7 million in its 12th weekend of release and earning $397.2 million to date. It should have just enough left in the tank to cross $400 million by next weekend. Want to know how nobody saw this performance coming? It’s already available to buy digitally, with the DVD and Blu-Ray out next week. Once again, we admire the remarkable performance for a film that probably wasn’t on anyone’s radar until very late into 2017. One last tip of the cap for one of the leggiest films of the modern era (to go with The Greatest Showman, which departed the top ten this week).

Your top 12 films this weekend totaled $128.4 million of box office, compared to last year’s $151.7 when Kong: Skull Island opened to $61 million. Next weekend brings the reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise, starring Alicia Vikander, as Black Panther goes for its fifth weekend at the top.

Top Ten for Weekend of March 9-11, 2018
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross ($)	Weekly Change	Cumulative Gross ($)
1	Black Panther	Walt Disney	41.1	-38%	562.0
2	A Wrinkle In Time	Walt Disney	33.3	New	33.3
3	The Strangers: Prey at Night	Aviron Pictures	10.4	New	10.4
4	Red Sparrow	20th Century Fox	8.1	-52%	31.1
5	Game Night	Warner Bros.	7.9	-24%	45.0
6	Peter Rabbit	Sony	6.8	-32%	93.4
7	Death Wish	MGM	6.6	-49%	23.8
8	The Hurricane Heist	Entertainment Studios	3.1	New	3.1
9	Annihilation	Paramount	3.1	-44%	26.0
10	Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle	Sony	2.7	-38%	397.2
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations