Battle at the Box Office 2/18

Alita: Battle Angel outperformed expectations and took the top spot at the box office but overall it was the worst President’s Day holiday weekend in the last 15 years.

Alita took in $34.4 million for the 4 day weekend and $43 million for its five day total.  Expectations from Fox were around $30 million but the big issue is that it cost around $170+ million to make, so it needs to rack up around $500-550 million worldwide to break even, which seems like an impossibility given its start.  The movie has taken in $137 million worldwide so far.

The Lego Movie 2 dropped only 19% from last weekend and made another $27.3 million, bringing it to $68.8 million and $103.4 million worldwide so far but it’s $28 million off from where the first Lego Movie was in its second weekend, which was $49 million and that’s even $15 million more than The Lego Movie 2’s opening last week.

Isn’t It Romantic took third place most likely thanks to it’s direct tie-in to Valentine’s Day with $16.6 million for the four day weekend and $22 million for its six days out.

What Men Want dropped to fourth place with $12.3 million for the four day weekend, bringing it to $37.6 million for its two weeks out.  Happy Death Day 2U rounded out the top 5 with $11 million for the four day weekend and $14.7 million for its six days out.  It’s way down from the first Happy Death Day, which made $26 million but it’s also a Blumhouse movie, so its already made back its budget and then some.

Further down the list, Glass topped $100 million domestically with $105 million for its five weeks out and The Prodigy almost dropped out of the top ten in its second weekend with $3.6 million in ninth place.  Ralph Break the Internet also almost jumped back into top ten, going from 29th to 13th with $1.3 million and gaining 956 theaters.  It’s not clear what caused this but Disney in the past has done drive-in or special double features, so this might be something similar.

The Per Screen average went to Fighting with My Family, the biopic about the WWE’s Paige, which opened on 4 screens to $41,581 per screen.  That movie opens wide this coming weekend.