A pair of sequels proved irresistible at the nation’s movie theaters this weekend, as “X-Men: The Apocalypse” and “Alice Through The Looking Glass” appeared to be heading to a combined $116 million in domestic sales.
With final figures due on Memorial Day Monday, the weekend was seeing an estimated $80 million in four-day sales for the X-Men sequel, and $35.6 million for the Alice movie.
“As Memorial (Day) weekends go, this was not one for the record books,” said media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, at comScore. “But still there are some bright spots and obviously this was a great weekend for a plethora of strong holdovers.”
“The Angry Birds Movie” kept on chirping, with an estimated $18.7 million in sales over the three-day weekend, and $66.4 million over the past three weeks.
And “Captain America: Civil War” was fourth, with a projected $9.1 million in sales by the close of business tonight. It has grossed $372 million domestically.
The 10 most-popular films in the U.S. and Canada — as claimed by the studios and collated by comScore — included “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” ($9.1 million), “The Jungle Book” ($6.4 million), “The Nice Guys” ($4.2 million), “Money Monster” ($2.5 million) and “Zootopia” ($831,000).
Those figures were for the close of business Sunday.
–City News Service