Cap: Civil War has 2016’s biggest movie opening in U.S.

Captain America: Civil War logo

UPDATE (May 9, 2016): The movie’s actual weekend box office was revised on Monday to $179.1 million.

Captain America: Civil War is posting the biggest weekend opening in the U.S. and Canada, with an estimated $181.8 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

The movie, which kicks off “Phase III” for Marvel Studios movies, has enjoyed favorable reviews, with a 91 percent “fresh” rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

While officially the third Captain America movie since 2011, Civil War concerns a rift among members of the Avengers, Marvel’s group of super heroes, whether they should submit to international oversight of their activities.

The movie also marked the introduction of the newest version of Spider-Man, who this time will be part of Marvel’s film universe. Future Spider-Man solo films will continue to be released by Sony Pictures.

Other major U.S.-Canada openings this year include Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166 million), Deadpool ($132.4 million) The Jungle Book ($103.3 million) and Zootopia ($75 million).

Civil War, while being a de facto Avengers film, didn’t match the U.S. openings of either 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers ($207.4 million) or 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.3 million).

Batman v Superman: When being No. 1 isn’t enough

Batman v Superman poster

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice shows that these days being No. 1 isn’t enough — it’s by how big a margin and how you compare against expectations.

The Warner Bros. superhero movie was No. 1 at the U.S.-Canadian box office for the second weekend in a row. But its box office performance for the April 1-3 weekend plunged 68 percent to $52.4 million, VARIETY REPORTED.

Typically, movies fall off about 50 percent or so from their first weekend to the second. It should also be noted that Batman v Superman’s $166 million first weekend was fattened up with $27.7 million in Thursday night showings.

Still, a decline of almost 70 percent isn’t good news anytime it occurs. Pamela McClintock, senior film writer for The Hollywood Reporter, added more perspective in a tweet on Saturday:

This is why word of mouth is gold: @deadpoolmovie made $56.4M in 2nd wknd vs a projected $50M+ for #BatmanvSuperman. https://t.co/GD5psfoZg4

— Pamela McClintock (@PamelaDayM) April 2, 2016

So, yes, in its second weekend, Batman v Superman ($250 million production budget) didn’t do as well as the R-rated, much more modestly budgeted Deadpool ($58 million) did during the Feb. 19-21 weekend.

Variety’s Brent Lang explained why this is bad news for Warner Bros.

“The major problem facing the studio is it doesn’t just need “Batman v Superman” to be a hit, it needs it to be so fervently embraced that fans will show up to see sequels and spin-offs for years to come,” Lang wrote. “The film is intended to kick off an interconnected cinematic universe of DC Comics characters that Warner Bros. hopes will rival what Marvel has achieved with the Avengers films.”

The Year of the Comic Book Movie off to strong start

Deadpool publicity still

The Year of the Comic Book Movie got off to a strong start at the box office, with 20th Century-Fox’s Deadpool generating an estimated $135 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada for the Feb. 12-14 weekend, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and VARIETY.

For some perspective, Deadpool’s opening weekend is shaping up to be almost twice the $70.4 million that SPECTRE generated in its opening weekend in November. It’s more than the entire worldwide run ($109.8 million) for 2015’s movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Deadpool’s box office for the four-day President’s Day weekend may be $150 million, according to the two entertainment websites.

Deadpool drew a lot of attention because of its R rating and stepped up violence. The character is part of Marvel Comics’ X-Men group of characters for which Fox obtained the film rights before Marvel began making its own movies in 2008. (THIS STORY from The Hollywood Reporter has more about the character’s comic book roots.)

Besides Marvel and Fox, Warner Bros. is boosting its output of comic book based movies this year with Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. The Superman-Batman movie is intended to lead into a two-part movie version of the Justice League of America super hero group.

Some prominent filmmakers, such as director William Friedkin, have expressed unhappiness with the rise of comic book movies, saying they’re ruining cinema.

The increased output has raised questions whether for comic book films is becoming saturated. Even before this year’s surge, there were flops, such as Fox’s 2015 Fantastic Four movie.

Director Steven Spielberg last year told The Associated Press last year that such movies will “go the way of the Western.”

Based on Deadpool’s opening, not yet. But another interesting test will come next month with Batman v. Superman.

Warner Bros. has had trouble making movies based on DC Comics characters other than Batman.

Superman Returns in 2006 film ended up being a one-shot, although it did generate $200 million in U.S.-Canada box office ($391 million worldwide). A 2011 Green Lantern movie (starring Ryan Reynolds, the star of Deadpool) was an expensive flop. The Martin Campbell-directed film had an estimated production budget of $200 million, but only generated $219.9 million in global box office.

A 2013 try at Superman, Man of Steel, did OK, but didn’t match the box office of a lot of Marvel films. Batman v. Superman follows up on that movie, using actor Henry Cavill as Superman.

Last week, Warners brought out its final Batman v. Superman trailer that was Batman-centric, playing up Ben Affleck’s performance as the Bob Kane-Bill Finger character. The movie has been rescheduled twice. Warners faces a situation where anything less than $1 billion in worldwide box office will be cast as a disappointment.

Still in the wings: Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Civil War in May (which caused Batman v. Superman to reschedule to March) and another X-Men movie from Fox. There’s a long way to go to see how all this turns out.