Box Office: Angry Birds

“The Angry Birds Movie” is flying past rivals this weekend at the U.S. box office, easily topping “Captain America: Civil War” and “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” with $40 million. Sony’s animated avian tale took off Friday with an opening day of $11 million at 3,932 locations. That was $2.3 million more than the 15th day of Disney-Marvel’s “Captain America” at 4,266 sites and Universal’s launch of “Neighbors 2” at 3,389 screens.
Warner Bros.’ opening of action-comedy “The Nice Guys” reeled in $3.9 million at 2,865 screens on Friday.

“Angry Birds,” which carries a $73 million budget and is based on the popular video game app, generated an A+ CinemaScore among the core under 25 audience. The film, directed by Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis, is set on an island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds – except for Red (voiced by Jason Sudeikis), speedy Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride).
“Captain America” is heading for a weekend in the $32 million range for a decline of about 56% from its second session — the eighth-highest of all time at $72.6 million. Should that estimate hold, “Captain America” will wind up the weekend among the top 20 highest-grossing third frames of all time.

“Captain America” crossed the $1 billion mark on Friday to become the 25th film to hit the milestone. “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,” starring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne and Chloë Grace Moretz, looks likely to finish the weekend at around $24 million — half of the $49 million launch of the original “Neighbors” two years ago. “Neighbors 2” will still be a money-maker, given its decent critical support (a 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes). With Warner Bros. opting to open “The Nice Guys” at the same time, the two titles are going after similar demographics and may have performed better had they launched on different weekends.

“The Nice Guys” is heading toward a moderate $10.9 million debut amid strong critical support (a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes) following Monday’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Set in 1977 Los Angeles, the buddy comedy stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.
“The Nice Guys” is battling Disney’s sixth weekend of “The Jungle Book” for fourth place as the latter showed plenty of holding power with $2.7 million on Friday. That projects to a weekend of around $11 million for a 36% decline.
“The Jungle Book” will wind up the weekend with a cumulative domestic total of $327 million.