Disney and Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War finished its third weekend at the box office with $1.606 billion in global ticket sales after earning another $61.8 million in North America and launching in China to a near-record $200 million.
Infinity War‘s worldwide haul includes $546.8 million domestically and $1.059 billion overseas. It is now the top-grossing superhero pic ever at the global box office after passing The Avengers ($1.519 billion), as well as the No. 5 title of all time, not adjusted for inflation.
The movie’s domestic weekend take of $61.8 million was the fourth-biggest gross for a film in its third weekend behind Black Panther ($66 million), Avatar ($68 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($90 million) after racing past the first Avengers ($56 million), not adjusted for inflation. Also, Infinity War reached $500 million in just 15 days, the second-fastest of any pic behind Force Awakens (10 days).
Infinity War opened Friday in China, its final foreign market. Based on local currency, the mega-superhero mashup scored the second-biggest three-day debut ever in the Middle Kingdom behind last year’s The Fate of the Furious, according to Disney. Marvel and Disney have high hopes for the movie’s prospects in China. Put another way: Infinity War is just days away from surpassing the entire lifetime run of Avengers: Age to Ultron in China ($240.1 million).
Sans competition from another tentpole, Avengers: Infinity War has topped the box office for three consecutive weekends, a veritable eternity in summer, when Hollywood tentpoles generally open one on top of another. In this case, rival studios avoided Infinity War as much as possible. The pic’s reign is expected to end next weekend when Fox unfurls Deadpool 2 starring Ryan Reynolds.
The results were mixed for a pair of smaller films targeting Mother’s Day weekend audiences.
New Line’s Melissa McCarthy starrer Life of the Party came in at No. 2 with $18.5 million from 3,656 theaters. While it’s the No. 2 comedy launch of the year so far behind Blockers ($20.6 million), the film nevertheless marks McCarthy’s lowest start in recent years and it didn’t match the $19.5 million opening of Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn’s Snatched over Mother’s Day weekend last year.
“This isn’t a miss by any shot, but certainly I was hoping for a little more,” says Warners‘ domestic distribution chief Jeff Goldstein of Life of the Party‘s bow. “Comedies in general have been challenged over the last two years. Audiences love this movie, and I think we could come in a little higher than projected.”
Life of the Party is the third collaboration between McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone; Tammy debuted to $21.6 million in summer 2014, while The Boss opened to $23.6 million in April 2016.
Falcone directed Life of the Party from a script he co-wrote with McCarthy about a newly divorced mom who returns to college, where her daughter is also a student. Molly Gordon, Gillian Jacobs, Maya Rudolph, Julie Bowen and Matt Walsh co-star.
Internationally, the comedy tested the waters in eight markets for a foreign debut of $2.9 million and a global cume of $21.4 million.
Universal’s Breaking In, a thriller produced by Will Packer, followed at No. 3 with $16.5 million from 2,532 cinemas. That’s well behind the $24.3 million launch of Packer’s 2014 thriller No Good Deed.
Breaking In stars Gabrielle Union as a woman who will stop at nothing to rescue her two children, who are being held hostage in a house designed with impenetrable security. (Packer and Union also worked together on 2016’s Almost Christmas, an ensemble comedy.) Directed by James McTeigue from a script by Ryan Engle, the film co-stars Billy Burke, Richard Cabral, Ajiona Alexus, Levi Meaden, Jason George, Seth Carr and Christa Miller.
“Gabrielle Union is just fantastic. She is a mom who is a real superhero and will do anything to protect her kids,” says Universal domestic distribution president Jim Orr. “And we love being in business with Will Packer.”
Life of the Party and Breaking In both earned B CinemaScores and skewed heavily female (70 percent and 65 percent, respectively).
Among holdovers, MGM and Pantelion Films’ Overboard placed No. 4 in its second outing with $10.1 million after declining a narrow 31 percent. The remake’s domestic total through Sunday is $29.6 million. In Mexico this weekend, Overboard made a huge splash in its debut with $10.5 million, the second-biggest start ever behind Infinity War.
Paramount’s horror blockbuster A Quiet Place rounded out the top five with $6.4 million for a domestic total of $169.6 million. The pic is likewise impressing overseas, where it topped the $100 mililon mark over the weekend to finish Sunday with a foreign total of $100.4 million. And that’s without such major markets as China, France and Japan, where it has yet to open.
