“The Mummy” Remains Dormant in Its Tomb as “Wonder Woman” Continues to Exceed Expectations

	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	Wonder Woman	$58.5m	$103.2m	$206.3m
	The Mummy	$31.6m	$31.6m	$31.6m
	Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie	$12.1m	$23.8m	$44.4m
	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	$10.7m	$62.9m	$135.8m
	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	$6.3m	$146.5m	$366.4m

This weekend’s box office played out more or less as expected, with some minor surprises here and there. Take the weekend’s number one film, for example. We all knew it would be Wonder Woman, but it performed even better than it was predicted to — for the second weekend in a row. Where Wonder Woman‘s three predecessors in the DC Extended Universe each fell well over 60 percent following their premiere weekends, WW fell only an astonishingly 43.3 percent, which is low for an action blockbuster in general. It speaks to audiences continued passion for the film and their eagerness to support this film in tangible and evident ways.

Wonder Woman has now crossed $200 million domestically with a very good chance of surpassing Man of Steel‘s $291 million total. Worldwide, the first female-directed superhero film is at $436 million, already halfway to Batman v Superman‘s $873 million worldwide total. It is, of course, important to note that Batman v Superman reached higher heights more quickly than Wonder Woman has so far, but it’s likely Wonder Woman will have longer legs than the rest of the DCEU films. After all, films that are poorly reviewed by critics and fans alike can only go so far without its most dedicated fans, whereas a film like Wonder Woman, which is being championed by all sides, has an entire ocean of support to keep it going for several weeks. Don’t be surprised to see this film continue to succeed in the coming weeks and surpass Man of Steel, possibly even Suicide Squad.

Meanwhile, the only new film to make it into the top five was the forecasted start to Universal’s Dark Universe: The Mummy. While it may have performed slightly better than my expectations, it certainly didn’t do any business to get excited about on the Universal lol. For a movie that’s meant to launch a completely new cinematic universe, the lack of interest in it from domestic audiences is alarming (it doesn’t help that critics haven’t been positive of the film, helping to contribute to its lackluster opening weekend, and prompting discussions about the possible harm of early screenings for critics). Not everything looks bleak for the film, which was made for $125 million. Its foreign intake was admirable, pulling in $141 million, for a worldwide total of $173.4 million so far and when it comes to Hollywood, all they’ll see are those numbers, regardless of where they come from.

Universal Pictures

The rest of the weekend’s box office was made up of holdovers which have been out for several weeks.

Captain Underpants came in third, making about as much as it was going to in its second weekend as it dropped a little less than 50 percent. Animated family films tend to do better long-term than most blockbusters, but this film is already shaping up to be one of the more average films in DreamWorks Animation’s archives. It’s just under $50 million worldwide and the 34th film domestically in the company’s history out of 35 films. While it will likely jump up a couple spots (it should certainly surpass The Road to El Dorado at $50 million), there’s a good chance it will peter out sooner rather than later as one of the less successful animated films out of a big studio in recent times.

Rounding out the top five are two Disney live-action sequels: the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film as well as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Just like Captain Underpants, the former is also turning out to be one of the more mediocre films at the box office this year, especially with a successful history behind it. After three weeks in theaters, Dead Men Tell No Tales is still the weakest performing film of the franchise and more than $100 million away from surpassing Curse of the Black Pearl both domestically and globally. While it should be in theaters for several weeks yet to come, it will still be pulling in only very small numbers as it will dip to the single digits starting next week. As it stands now, Dead Men Tell No Tales looks to be the weakest film of the franchise when all is said and done, leaving the franchise’s future unknown.

Guardians 2, the sequel to the 2014 smash hit from Marvel, maintained its spot in the top five mostly because the new horror film It Comes At Night underperformed and was not able to overcome this juggernaut of a blockbuster. It was Guardians’ sixth weekend out in theaters and it has yet to drop from the top five (although that should change this upcoming weekend when several films open nationwide, including another Disney sequel, Cars 3), but it still remains up in the air if the film will reach the heights of $1 billion. Globally, it’s now up to $828 million and the fifth-highest film both domestically and globally in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In all likelihood, that is where it will remain, but what really matters is that it’s still a surefire hit for Marvel.

(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor