RankTitleDomestic Gross (Weekend)Worldwide Gross (Cume)Week #Percentage ChangeBudget1Alita: Battle Angel$34,300,000$137,385,8951N/A$170M2The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part$27,325,000$103,400,3592-37.8%$100M3Isn't It Romantic$16,640,000$22,885,3471N/A$31M4What Men Want$12,370,000$40,100,3282-40.1%$20M5Happy Death Day 2U$11,012,000$26,523,5001N/A$9M* - Numbers are for the four day holiday weekend. Also, Alita was released wide on Thursday while Isn't It Romantic and Happy Death Day 2U were released on Wednesday.Notable Box Office StoriesAlita: Battle Angel - It seems more people than expected asked for "one ticket for...the girl called Alita" this weekend as despite a troubling opening day, Alita managed to hold well and end the weekend with $34.3M for the four-day holiday weekend. The film opened wide on Thursday and earned a total of $43M domestic. As mentioned the Thursday night showing was pretty weak, making it seem like Alita would be lucky to escape the weekend with $30M total. However the film seemed to grow over the weekend as positive word of mouth started to spread, as noted by a surprising A- score on Cinemascore which contradicted the more mixed and middling professional critical reviews. Of course better than expectations does not equal fantastic, especially when expectations were a $200M bomb. The film carries a budget of around $170M and a solid marketing budget not to mention potential any lost revenue its sudden movement from the crowded December bloodbath to February (a move which certainly helped the film after this weekend). And while Alita could run this open field for a little while the massive wall that is Captain Marvel will destroy any blockbuster momentum that Alita maintains, which is why its small hopes for a sequel exist ON THE MOON! Or overseas. Indeed in international markets Alita is fairing much better, earning $94.3M from its week long release in outside the US. And while the film scored solid earnings in the UK ($4M) and Australia ($2.9M) it has completely cleaned up in Asian markets: $10.8M in South Korea, $4.6M in Taiwan, $2.8M in Malaysia, and $2.8M in Hong Kong.Alita: Battle Angel (cont.) - You may notice two major markets in that region not on this list, China and Japan, the latter of which the film is already tracking well and the former seeing it's massive blockbuster The Wandering Earth beginning to wain which could lead straight into a major Alita run. Of course those are still big what ifs and analysts say the film has to gross well over $500M just to break even. While this debut is not the catastrophic disaster some predicted (namely a certain industry paper that rhymes with Red Wine) its certainly nowhere near high enough to guarantee success. And let's not forget the craziest part of all, that this was directed by the guy who made Sharkboy and Lavagirl! Oh and this could well be the final film released by 20th Century Fox before they're merged Akira style into the fleshy behemoth that is Disney. And with Disney already on the hook for four goddamn expensive James Cameron projects as it is, will they really fund another one just so nerds on Reddit can be hype about Alita fighting Space Ed Norton? Alita has a higher uphill battle when you move its level of success from the launching a franchise for a struggling company to a $500M defeat because Disney only plays in the billionaires club. Alita you may be a great robot fighter but you can never defeat the greatest enemy of all, corporate financial restructuring!Isn't It Romantic - Did you know that Leonard Maltin's entire review of the 1948 musical Isn't it Romantic? was simply "no". That has nothing do with this film other than the title, just thought you'd enjoy a little trivia. Anyways the current Isn't It Romantic is not a musical but rather a send-up of the rom com genre that opened okay at #3 to $16.6M for the four-day weekend. Though, it was released early on Valentine's Day and has earned a domestic total of $22.8M. That's a solid opening for a $31M budgeted film starring someone who is known more for her raunchy Pitch Perfect role than as a likable romantic lead (even an unlikely one). Sadly because of the insane dominance of the Fifty Shades films over Valentine's weekend in the past we have to go back to 2016 to find another rom com opening on the same weekend. In 2016 How to Be Single (which also featured Wilson) opened to $19.9M on the same weekend. That film closed to $46.8M domestic and both films scored the same rating on Cinemascore so expect a very similar play here. Perhaps Rebel will become the new Valentine's Day contender to rule the new landscape of off-kilter valentine's day fair. Or at least until the next time the country decides to get horny on main and push Rebel out for the safe but still erotic fursuit movie. It's gonna happen, hate it or loathe it.Happy Death Day 2U - I knew there was something fishy going on when The Prodigy flopped and now this surprising underperformance. Something is definitely strange happening in horror right now in that...well it's performing like it used to. The sequel to the surprise 2017 hit seemed like a surefire lay-up for an easy hit but instead it underperformed opening at #5 to $11M. Now of course it's worth pointing out like every other horror film this one was made for a paltry sum of $9M and has already earned over $25M worldwide so it's not exactly hurting. But when you compare the opening to the $26M of the first you have to wonder what happened here. There's definitely some potential culprits.Happy Death Day 2U (cont.) - The film got a good boost in eyeballs with its trailer being attached in front of Halloween (2018) but then said trailer didn't come online for over a month after, giving little time for internet marketing. While the Valentine's Day release is certainly cheeky it might have just been too much, as the original opened in the usually more horror friendly month of October and did well. And then there's the simple explanation that perhaps not a lot of people wanted this movie. Groundhog's Day meets Scream is a fun premise once, but asking for people to get deep into the HDDCU mythology may just be too much. Whatever the case, it's clear that 2018 is showing the insane gold rush of horror might be slowing down. Obviously highly expected follow-ups like Us and IT: Part 2 will be the bigger signs, but this isn't the best start of the year for the genre that has so thoroughly dominated for so long. I guess worst of all Happy D3eath Day: 3D is a dream I will just have to hold for myself forever.Overall Box Office - If I could sum up the current situation as the box office I think I will speak the immortal words of Jay Sherman: it stinks. Just for starters this is the worst President's Day weekend for the box office since 2004 when such classics as 50 First Dates, Miracle, and Barbershop 2 ruled the weekend (okay that sounds kinda kino). Even worse, this entire year up to this point has been the worst one at the box office since 2011. So why all the flops? Well for one at least in terms of this weekend a similarly sluggish year in 2018 was kickstarted by a little film called Black Panther, which opened over $240M for the four day total and became Reddit's choice for most overrated film of all time overnight! 2019 just hasn't had that kind of huge success that a BP or a 50 Shades helps solidify. There's also that matter of the polar vortex which cut off a lot of people from the warm cozy embrace of a matinee What Men Want screening. And there's just overall not been the same kind of major blockbuster fair. I wouldn't worry too much yet about 2019 at the box office. Let's see what March brings with Captain Marvel and Us before sounding alarm bells. That said I'm betting $1,000 to annoy who think Avengers: Infinity War will make over $300M domestic. Also my doctor said something about me having a horrible gambling problem and to inform you all, but ignore that.Oscar Movie Round-Up - Not much to report as all the films are in a holding pattern until next Sunday to see if Best Picture will now be cut and replaced with an Arianna Grande concert. Gotta get the kids interested! The kids!!!!Films Reddit Wants to FollowThis is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.TitleDomestic Gross (Weekly)Domestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetWeek #A Star is Born (2018)$825,819$210,016,688$423,116,688$36M20Bohemian Rhapsody$1,767,277$212,231,709$854,299,090$52M16Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald$103,428$159,466,059$652,866,059$200M13Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse$5,905,558$183,420,904$356,728,605$90M10Aquaman$4,239,060$331,801,102$1,132,501,102$200M9Holmes and Watson$51,730$30,547,915$40,232,469$42M7The Wandering Earth$2,431,790$3,883,544$606,867,200$50M3Notable Film ClosingsN/AAs always r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at r/moviesboxoffice (which have recently been updated).My Letterboxd: http://bit.ly/2rSmMyn via /r/movies http://bit.ly/2DN3hwo
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