Two new movies hit the wide release schedule this weekend, looking to challenge Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 for box office superiority in the States... and it did not go well for them. No, Star-Lord, Gamora and the rest easily saw off the competition, grabbing $63 million in their second weekend on release across the pond, according to studio estimates.
That brings the Marvel sequel up to more than $246 million in the US, and the movie is still doing big business overseas, with a global tally of $630 million. As for the newbies, Snatched, the new Amy Schumer comedy looked to draw in the American Mother's Day crowd with its tale of a mother-daughter duo (co-starring Goldie Hawn as her mum) on a holiday that goes wrong. But it opened relatively softly with $17 million. Especially compared to 2015's Trainwreck, which opened to $30 million.
As for King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, which arrived bearing the hopes that it might launch a connected, multi-film universe set in Arthurian times. Yeah, those plans might be on hold unless the movie does well overseas, as the Stateside launch generated $14.7 million. For a movie that cost a reported $175 million before a barrage of advertising costs, that's not good. Arthur might just be better off putting the sword back in the stone and forgetting about it, lest someone claim his mother was a hamster.
Still, the new films shoved Fast & Furious 8 down to fourth from second, with the movie earning $5 million, ahead of The Boss Baby in fifth with $4.6 million.
Sixth was Beauty And The Beast, which added 3.8 million to its already impressive haul of $215 million in the US. How To Be A Latin Lover fell to seventh on $3.7 million. At eighth was a new arrival, albeit one launching in far fewer cinemas than any of the others (around 3,0000 fewer to be exact). Lowriders, about car culture in East LA, has been stuck in release limbo for a couple of years, and actually debuted in the UK before the States. It made $2.4 million in the US, but given its Blumhouse credentials, we can imagine it wasn't exactly a pricey movie to begin with.
At ninth, The Circle continued to underperform with $1.74 million. The tech thriller/satire has just about made its original back in the US, but the hope for profits seems slim. Finally, at 10th, Bollywood success story Baahubali 2: The Conclusion made $1.5 million.