Brie Larson's Captain Marvel Conquers Trolls with Historic $455 Million Opening Weekend
Carol Danvers got the last laugh.
Captain Marvel broke box office records over the weekend when the Brie Larson-starrer soared to a $153 million box office debut in North America. The latest Marvel offering continued the studio’s domination overseas, with a $302 million opening weekend, putting the total worldwide gross over three days at a whopping $455 million.
The movie gives Marvel its second-best opening for an origin story, with only last year’s Black Panther raking in more at $202 million. Captain Marvel made its debut at 7th overall in opening weekends for all Marvel movies.
Before its blockbuster opening, far right trolls coordinated an effort to undermine the movie by posting negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes from people who hadn’t even seen the movie. Despite trolls continuing to post negative reviews, audiences overwhelmingly loved it, giving the film an A Cinemascore, with 80 percent of critics liking it as well, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
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Larson has been vocal about giving opportunities to more people of color and women when it comes to her press days.
“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male,” Larson said when asked about her reasons for choosing Keah Brown as her interviewer for Marie Claire. “So, I spoke to Dr. Stacy Smith at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, who put together a study to confirm that. Moving forward, I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive…I want to go out of my way to connect the dots. It just took me using the power that I’ve been given now as Captain Marvel.”
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Larson made headlines in mid-2018 when she called out the lack of diversity in critics while at the Crystal + Lucy Awards.
“Am I saying I hate white dudes?” Larson said. “No, I’m not … [but if] you make the movie that is a love letter to women of color, there is an insanely low chance a woman of color will have a chance to see your movie and review your movie.”
