'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' may have won the weekend with $32.2
million but got badly dinged by 'Cocaine Bear,' which opened to a much
better-than-expected $23.1 million for Universal. The faith-based 'Jesus
Revolution' also delivered strong numbers.
Box Office: Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man 3’ Gets Mauled by ‘Cocaine Bear,’ Suffers Record 69.7% Drop
It was a disappointing weekend at the box office for Marvel’s Ant-Man 3 as it was mauled by the surprise hit, Cocaine Bear. The movie suffered a record 69.7% drop in its second weekend, making it one of the worst performing movies in recent history.
The surprise success of Cocaine Bear, an independent film with no major studio backing, has been an unexpected hit and is now being compared to some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. Ant-Man 3 was expected to do well but its record drop has left many wondering what went wrong.
Analysts are now trying to figure out what caused this record drop and if there are any lessons to be learned from this unexpected result. Will Marvel be able to bounce back from this setback or will it be another blow for the studio? Only time will tell.
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| Marvel and Disney’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania |
Marvel and Disney’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may have stayed atop the domestic box office
chart in its sophomore outing with an estimated $32.2 million, but the
real superhero of the weekend was Universal’s high-concept genre pic Cocaine Bear.
Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear opened to $23.1 million after stealing away younger adults — and particularly males — from the Ant-Man
threequel. Overseas, it sniffed out $5.3 million for an early global
total of $28.4 million against a reported budget of $35 million before
marketing.
Ant-Man 3 fell 69.7 percent in North America, the worst decline ever for a title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after eclipsing Black Widow‘s
67.8 percent drop (the latter pic had the disadvantage of opening
during the pandemic, and was made available simultaneously in the home).
The Ant-Man threequel also suffered the worst second-weekend drop of any superhero film opening to $100 million or more. DC’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice previously sat in the hot seat at 69.1 percent. Among MCU movies in this category, last year’s Thor: Love and Thunder
saw the biggest decline, or 67.7 percent, after debuting at $144.2
million. And among all films starting off with $100 million or more, the
final Harry Potter installment, released in 2011, tops the
list of biggest second-weekend drops with a decline of 72 percent,
according to Comscore.
Ant-Man 3 opened
to $120.4 million over the four-day Presidents Day weekend, including a
franchise-best $106.1 million for the three days (the three-day number
is used as the official comparison going forward). But poor word of
mouth is clearly hurting the movie, along with the competition posed by Cocaine Bear. Nor did a historic storm on the West Coast help matters.
Overseas, the superhero threequel earned another $46.4 million for a
global tally of $363.6 million, including a domestic cume of $167.3
million and $196.3 million internationally.
Cocaine Bear is a dark comedy about a drug smuggling operation
that goes horribly awry when a 500-pound bear ingests a duffel bag of
cocaine and goes on a killing rampage in a small Georgia town. Banks
also produced the high-profile genre pic alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller,
Max Handelman, Brian Duffield and Aditya Sood. The feature earned a B-
CinemaScore, which while low, generally is not a problem for
horror-centric films.
Heading into the weekend, Cocaine Bear was tracking to open in the $15 million to $17 million range.
In addition to Cocaine Bear, Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s Jesus Revolution also
opened ahead of expectations. The faith-based feature — earning a
coveted A+ CinemaScore — debuted to a rousing $15.5 million (the same
amount it cost to make). The 1970s-set feature is inspired by true
events and centers on a revivalist Christian movement that swept
America.
Jesus Revolution, which came in a strong No. 3, overindexed in the South and Midwest.
