Box Office: ‘Ant-Man 3’ Faces Record Drop, ‘Cocaine Bear’ Feeling High and Happy

Pamela McClintock and Aaron Couch
·2 min read
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Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is facing stormy times at the weekend box office, where it tumbled 69.7 percent to $32.2 million in its sophomore outing.

If these estimates hold, the pic is suffering the worst second-weekend decline ever for a title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or for a Hollywood superhero pic opening to $100 million or more at the domestic box office.

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DC’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice comes the closest at 69.1 percent. Among MCU movies, last year’s Thor: Love and Thunder declined the most, or 67.7 percent. And among any film starting off with $100 million or more, the final Harry Potter installment, released in 2011, tops the list of biggest second-weekend drops with a decline of 72 percent, according to Comscore.

Ant-Man 3 opened to $120.4 million over the four-day Presidents Day weekend, including a franchise-best $106.1 million for the three days (the three-day number is used as the official comparison going forward). But poor word of mouth is clearly hurting the movie, along with competition from new offering Cocaine Bear, which is stealing away younger adults (and especially males). A historic storm on the West Coast also isn’t helping matters.

Universal’s Cocaine Bear — which even beat Ant-Man 3 on Friday with $8.7 million versus $8.3 million — opened to an estimated $23.1 million, ahead of expectations. Cocaine Bear’s Friday gross of $8.7 million included $2 million in Thursday evening previews.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear is a dark comedy about a drug-smuggling operation that goes horribly awry when a 500-pound bear ingests a duffel bag of cocaine and goes on a killing rampage in a small Georgia town. Banks also produced the high-profile genre pic alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Max Handelman, Brian Duffield and Aditya Sood. The feature earned a B- CinemaScore, which while low, generally is not a problem for horror-centric films.

In addition to Cocaine Bear, Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s Jesus Revolution opened ahead of expectations. The faith-based feature boasted a glowing A+ CinemaScore and earned $6.95 million Friday, which includes an estimated $3.3 million from early screenings Wednesday and Thursday. Jesus Revolution came in at a strong No. 3 with $15 million. The 1970s-set feature is inspired by true events and centers on a revivalist Christian movement that swept America.

Feb. 26, 8 a.m. Grosses updated.

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