“Ant-Man and the Wasp” Stings the Competition

After the devastating events – and record-breaking opening – of Avengers: Infinity War, it was kind of an open question whether audiences would be up for a much lighter, lower-stakes adventure from Marvel. The answer? Kinda. While Ant-Man and the Wasp continues the tradition of MCU sequels debuting higher than their predecessors – with Avengers: Age of Ultron being the one exception – the results aren't quite as high as expected. $76 million is the lowest debut for an MCU movie since, well, the original Ant-Man, which missed out on being the lowest debut of any MCU movie by $2 million. Still, word-of-mouth and critical praise were high, and it still has a shot at $200 million. It won't have serious competition until the end of the month, when Tom Cruise returns to the Mission: Impossible franchise. (Both films debuted and finished with similar grosses back in 2015.)

Incredibles 2 held onto No. 2, with an astonishingly small 35 percent drop. It's now crossed $500 million, the first animated movie to ever do that (and only the 12th movie to ever hit that mark). And yes, Disney has eight of those 12 spots. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom fell to third after two weeks on top. It also became the third movie of the year to cross $1 billion internationally, and the 35th to ever do it.

The First Purge had the lowest debut of any of the films in the franchise. But as always, these movies don't cost that much to make, and will eventually prove to be extremely profitable. It's made $31 million since opening Wednesday, and though it will drop a lot next weekend, it should still finish between the first and second films. It ended up killing Sicario: Day of the Soldado, which fell nearly 62 percent. That might mean a third film could be executed.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: Audiences bought into the hype around Sorry to Bother You. The wild comedy averaged an excellent $44,831 on its 16 screens. It goes wide next weekend.
• Whitney continued the summer of well-received documentaries doing extremely well. The story of Whitney Houston's career and tragic downfall made $1.2 million, for 10th place.
• While it hasn't been as big as Whitney, RBG or Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Three Identical Strangers has been a sleeper hit. The documentary added 46 screens this weekend, and has now made more than $1 million.

Next weekend:

While the Rock (excuse me... Dwayne Johnson) is still a major draw, this will be his third movie in seven months. I won't say audiences will get tired of him, but Skyscraper won't be as big as San Andreas. Standing in its way will be the power of kids who love animated movies and make their parents take them. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation moves from the easier fall months smack into the summer. Even with competition from Incredibles 2, it will be No. 1 with around $50 million. Skyscraper should top out at $30 million for third place.