No “Curse” as “La Llorona” Tops the Box Office

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report Comments Off on No “Curse” as “La Llorona” Tops the Box Office

BOX OFFICE REPORT

April 19-21, 2019

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

The Curse of La Llorona  $26.5 million
Shazam! $17.1 million
Breakthrough $11.1 million
Captain Marvel $9.1 million
Little  $8.4 million

Audiences chose demonic horror this Easter weekend, making The Curse of La Llorona the No. 1 film. While it shares a connection to the highly successful Conjuring universe, Warner Bros. decided to downplay that for some reason. No telling if that would have helped it out any. The horror flick, which touches on Mexican folklore, brought in an estimated $26.5 million. That's about on par with recent titles like Pet Sematary and above modest performers like Escape Room and far outpacing the likes of The Prodigy and Happy Death Day 2U.

Shazam! slipped to second place. It's now the fourth biggest movie of 2019 thus far, and should make it to $150 million in the next few weeks, even with increased competition. Overseas, it's already passed $200 million. Breakthrough, the lone religious title of the weekend, did about as expected, taking in $14.6 million since opening Wednesday. The film had a much better cast than other faith-based films, and ended up earning much better reviews than its brethren. (It's currently at 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.)

Captain Marvel leapt back into the top 5, actually increasing its gross about five percent from the previous weekend. My guess is some folks are revisiting before Avengers: Endgame opens next weekend. Little dropped to fifth, and it's not looking like it will be one of the year's breakout comedies.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Despite A24's botched release – the film had its opening date delayed twice – Under the Silver Lake had a solid opening. On just two screens, the film averaged $20,079.
  • Dumbo became the eight movie of 2019 to pass $100 million. It should pass Glass for that fifth slot shortly.
  • Hellboy had an even more hellish second weekend, as it dropped all the way to 10th place. Expect it to shed 2000-plus screens next weekend.

Next week:

At this point, everyone knows Avengers: Endgame is going to break the opening weekend record. But just how high can it get? With the film's runtime over three hours, there won't be quite as many showings as there were of Infinity War. Still, it will beat that record, but I think $300 million will be out of reach. So I'm going to split the difference and say $275 million, which will probably stand until, oh, the end of the year.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.