By Surprising no one, all of the bad publicity and reviews took its toll on Hellboy. With Shazam! having a surprising amount of strength going for it, it was the movie to beat for all of this week’s new releases. Unfortunately, Hellboy came in well below expectations, coming in at third place and making only $12 million when it was predicted to make anywhere between $17 million and $20 million. Combine that with poor fan reception and it looks like we’ve got a solid bomb on our hands.
Speaking of bombs, it looks like it’s going to be an uphill battle for Missing Link which bowed out at $5.8 million, making it not only the worst debut in Laika’s history, but also becoming the 11th worst opening for a movie opening in 3,000+ screens. That’s pretty bad. I want to say I’m surprised, but nearly all of Laika’s movies have been box office disappointments and I’m starting to be genuinely concerned about the future of the studio. Laika can’t keep making bomb after bomb without something breaking.
In a bit of brighter news, Little had a strong debut, coming in at second place with a box office of $15 million against a $20 million budget. The Tina Gordon directed movie is different enough from all of the other movies out now that it could have a healthy life ahead of it, especially with the upcoming Easter weekend. Even then, it was still a pretty underwhelming week at the box office, with Shazam! maintaining its #1 slot for now, but having a drop of 53% in the process.
Honestly, I think everyone is just waiting around until the end of the month when Avengers: Endgame finally releases. We know it’s going to make bank and no studio wants to open against it, or even before it and watch their release get swallowed by the great maw of Disney. So now we just need to wait and twiddle our thumbs until it releases and revives the box office from its mid-April snooze.
1. Shazam! – $25,140,000
2. Little – $15,499,000
3. Hellboy – $12,015,000
4. Pet Sematary – $10,000,000
5. Dumbo – $9,186,000
6. Captain Marvel – $8,626,000
7. Us – $6,946,000
8. After – $6,200,000
9. Missing Link – $5,841,000
10. Best of Enemies – $2,000,000
