Disney’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has generated unexpected buzz, taking in an estimated $118 million over the long holiday weekend to dominate the North American box office.
The estimate, from industry watcher Exhibitor Relations, exceeded predictions and gave Marvel’s latest superhero film one of the strongest totals of the four-day US President’s Day weekend.
“This is a very sensational opening by Marvel’s own standards,” said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. Despite “unusual” reviews and audience scores, he said, “it’s great business and a big step for the title.”
With Paul Rudd again playing the microscopic Ant-Man and Evangeline Lilly as the heiress able to shrink to the size of the Wasp, the film blew the weekend competition aside.
Avatar: The Way of Water placing a distant second at $7.5 million — although the 20th century mixed-race animated film has now compiled a global total of $2.24 billion.
This puts the James Cameron-directed sequel in third place in the all-time global box office rankings, knocking the 1997 classic Titanic – now back in cinemas as a special 25th anniversary edition – out of the top three.
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Original Avatar, released in 2009 and also directed by Cameron, holds the highest position at $2.9 billion.
Universal is family-oriented Puss in Boots: The Last Wish placed third after Ant-Man and Avatar 2 in the long weekend with a solid $ 7.4 million in nine weeks out.
In fourth place was last weekend’s leader, the Warner Bros. comedy-drama Magic Mike’s last dance, at $5.8 million. Channing Tatum stars as a retired, and big-hearted, stripper in Steven Soderbergh’s latest film.
And in fifth place is another Universal movie, M. Night Shyamalan’s creepy thriller Knock on the Cabinat $4.6 million.
The top 10 are:
80 for Brady ($4.3 million)
Titanic: 25th Anniversary ($2.7 million)
Marlowe ($2.2 million)
lost ($2.0 million)
A man named Otto ($1.9 million)
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