Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures‘ Pacific Rim Uprising ruled the global box office with an estimated $150.5 million this weekend. In North America, the Steven S. DeKnight-directed sequel opened in first place with $28 million from 3,708 theaters, an average of $7,552 per location. The original Pacific Rim opened to $37.3 million its first weekend in 2013.
Pacific Rim Uprising opened in 61 international markets this weekend, including major markets such as Korea, Russia, Taiwan, Mexico, U.K., France, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Italy and Spain, where the film earned $57.5 million. Pacific Rim Uprising also opened in China, where Legendary East is releasing the film, and it is on track to gross $65 million there, for an overseas total of $122.5 million already.
Made for $150 million, Pacific Rim Uprising stars John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Rinko Kikuchi, Adria Arjona,Burn Gorman, and Charlie Day.
After reigning for five weeks, Marvel Studios‘ Black Panther dropped to second place at the domestic box office with another $16.7 million to push its six-week total to $630.9 million. That means Black Panther has passed Marvel’s The Avengers to become the No. 1 superhero movie and the fifth overall release of all-time domestically. Internationally, the juggernaut took in $12.9 million this weekend to take its total to $606.4 million (with $102.7 million coming from China). Black Panther stands as the No. 5 Marvel Cinematic Universe release off all time internationally and has grossed more than all other non-MCU superhero releases except for The Dark Knight Rises ($637 million).
Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions’ release of the Erwin Brothers faith-based family drama I Can Only Imagine remained in third place domestically with $13.8 million and had the lowest drop in ticket sales out of the top 10 with just 19.1%. The film has earned $38.3 million after two weeks and cost just $7 million to make. I Can Only Imagine stars Dennis Quaid, Cloris Leachman, Trace Adkins, J. Michael Finley, Priscilla Shirer, and Madeline Carroll.
Opening in fourth place in North America was the animated sequel Sherlock Gnomes (Paramount Pictures), which brought in $10.6 million from 3,662 theaters, an average of $2,895 per location. . Sherlock Gnomes also is now playing in 19 markets overseas where it’s earned $4.6 million. Directed by John Stevenson, Sherlock Gnomes features the voices of James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Ashley Jensen, Matt Lucas, Stephen Merchant, Mary J. Blige and Johnny Depp.
At number five in the US was Warner Bros. and MGM’s video game flick Tomb Raider, which added $10.4 million its second weekend for a total of $41.7 million. The film continues to perform better out of the states with another $34.1 million earned this weekend from 66 markets to bring its total to $170 million (with $69.4 million coming from China). Worldwide, Tomb Raider is now up to $211.7 million. The film stars Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Kristin Scott Thomas.
