Here's one for your News of Shocking Events file. Captain America: Civil War, the latest blockbuster to be launched by the indomitable MCU, is eyeing an absolutely tremendous $180 million weekend from current projections, according to Variety. This would mean that the film is looking to unseat Iron Man 3, arguably the very best Marvel Studios production to date, in the best opening weekend rankings, which is kinda hilarious. Ya know, with the Civil War thing and all...nevermind.
Friday box office numbers has the Chris Evans-led film, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, coming in with an astounding $75.3 million, beating out all pretenders to the throne. This number lands the blockbuster in the seventh spot on the best Friday opening rankings, trailing the likes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Marvel's The Avengers, and, sigh, Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice. Pretty impressive company, at least when one considers the monetary intake of the those films. In terms of quality, less so.
If the projections of $180 million are to be believed, and there's no reason not to, it would place the film in the fifth spot as far as opening weekend numbers go. Captain America: Civil War would land behind a pretty elite class of films: Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $248 million, Jurassic World at $208.8 million, Marvel’s The Avengers at $207.4 million and Avengers: Age of Ultron at $191.3 million. For the record, the current fifth place take goes to Iron Man 3 with $174.1 million, which is nothing to sniff at.
We'll have a clearer answer as to where exactly the number will land tomorrow, but at this point, discussing any other film seems just plain trivial. Yes, The Jungle Book is still doing well, looking to take the second spot with some $24 million, but we've had a handful of weekends where The Jungle Book has been the main topic of conversation. Expect the rest of May to be dominated by Captain America: Civil War, a film I thoroughly enjoyed for what it's worth, until X-Men: Apocalypse rears its weird, blue mutant-god head.
