'Captain America' is the second-biggest movie of the year
After less than three weeks in release -- and only 10 days in U.S. theaters -- Captain America: Civil War has the second-highest box office total in the world for 2016.
It's got an estimated domestic take of $72.6 million for weekend #2, plus another $84.2 million -- again, estimated -- from 55 foreign markets in weekend #3. Those totals bring Civil War's cumulative box office up to $940.9 million.
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That's less than $30 million behind the $969.8 million held by Zootopia, which is currently #1 for 2016 around the globe. But where Zootopia is in the midst of sunsetting, Captain America is just getting started. It should cross the billion-dollar box office mark before next weekend is over.
With the new estimate, Cap's cumulative domestic total of $295.9 million is good enough for #5 of the year. It's currently behind The Jungle Book ($311.8 million), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($328.2 million), Zootopia ($331.8 million) and Deadpool ($362.5 million).
It should easily rise to #2 in the next couple weeks. Even a 60% drop-off in domestic ticket sales from the second to third weekend would bring Civil War up into the $330 million range.
For comparison, Batman v Superman saw a 55% drop in sales from its second to third weekend. The DC Comics movie shed viewers faster than Cap has so far, with a 69% drop-off in domestic ticket sales after one week, versus 59% for Civil War this week.
To be fair, Captain America faces stiffer competition in its third weekend, with two comedies -- Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and The Nice Guys -- and a family-friendly animated feature (Angry Birds) crowding the calendar. Even if those slow its progress, Disney has historically fared well with Marvel features in May.
In three out of the past four years, Marvel Comics superheroes have been the focus of a big early-May release. The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) all released in May and finished the month with close to or more than $400 million in the bank, domestically.
Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) is an outlier, having been released one month earlier than the rest (April 4), and opening significantly lower -- $95 million in its first weekend, versus $170 million-plus for the others. Disney didn't repeat that apparent mistake with Civil War, and with close to $300 million in the bank domestically, it appears to be paying off.
Disney hangs on to the #2 spot this weekend as well, with the live-action remake of The Jungle Book scoring an estimated $17.8 million domestically. It's not a huge lead over newcomer Money Monster, which has an estimated $15 million in the #3 spot, but it's enough.
The Darkness (another new release) and Mother's Day fill out the rest of the top five, with an estimated $5.2 million and $3.3 million, respectively.
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Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
