8:01 AM PDT 3/18/2018
by
Pamela McClintock
In a surprise upset, the faith-based ‘I Can Only Imagine’ — about the most popular Christian song in history — beats ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ and ‘Love, Simon.’
Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther continued to make history in its fifth weekend with a box-office haul of $27 million, defeating Tomb Raider and becoming only the seventh film ever to cross the $600 million mark in North America.
The other big headline of the weekend was Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate’s faith-based film I Can Only Imagine, which vastly overperformed. The movie debuted to $17.1 million from 1,628 cinemas, defeating A Wrinkle of Time and Love, Simon — the first film from a major Hollywood studio featuring a gay teen protagonist — in a surprise upset.
Black Panther is the first film since Avatar eight years ago to top the chart for five consecutive weekends, and only the third film to do so in 19 years after Avatar and The Sixth Sense. The Disney and Marvel superhero pic finished Sunday with a domestic total of $605.4 million and $1.182 billion globally. In the U.S., it is only days away from overtaking fellow Marvel film The Avengers ($623 million) to become the top-grossing superhero film of all time in North America, unadjusted for inflation.
Tomb Raider‘s muted domestic bow of $23.5 million is a disappointment for Warner Bros. and MGM, which partnered in rebooting the female-led franchise that’s based on the videogame. Norwegian filmmaker Roar Uthaug (The Wave) directed the $90 million film, which stars Alicia Vikander opposite Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Tomb Raider placed No. 2, followed by I Can Only Imagine, which marks the biggest opening in Roadside’s history.
The film stars J. Michael Finley as Bart Millard, the lead singer of the Christian band MercyMe, who wrote “I Can Only Imagine,” considered to be the most popular song in Christian music history. Dennis Quaid and Cloris Leachman also star in the film, which cost a modest $7 million to make.
Coming in at No. 4, Ava DuVernay’s Wrinkle in Time grossed $16.6 million in its second weekend domestically, falling 50 percent, despite being a family film. The fantasy-adventure, from Disney, has earned $61.1 million in North America and $71.7 million globally.
Like Tomb Raider, Fox’s YA adaptation Love, Simon — disappointed in its opening. The film took fifth place with $11.5 million from 2,402 theaters.
Greg Berlanti directed the Fox 2000 dramedy, which stars Nick Robinson as Simon Spier, a closeted high schooler who tries to find out the identity of an anonymous classmate he’s fallen in love with online. Love, Simon cost $17 million to produce.
Both Love, Simon and I Can Only Imagine nabbed coveted A+ CinemaScores, while Tomb Raider earned a mediocre B. (The score could help Love, Simon in the weeks to come.)
More to come…
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