Weekend box office: 'John Wick 3' outpaces expectations, 'Endgame' surpasses 'Titanic'

Weekend Box Office: May 17-19, 2019

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Going into the week it felt inevitable that “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” would finish the weekend atop the domestic box office. “Avengers: Endgame” was still posting fantastic numbers, but they’d fallen enough to suggest that the growing popularity of the John Wick franchise was going to be just enough to surpass the MCU juggernaut.

Besting expectations, “John Wick 3” finished the weekend with a truly impressive $57 million. Internationally the film brought in an additional $35 million for a worldwide total of $92 million. In 2014, the original film opened with $14 million on its way to a final total of $43 million in North America and a worldwide total of $88 million. 2017’s “John Wick: Chapter Two” opened to $30 million and finished its domestic run at $92 million and $171.5 million worldwide. Franchises tend to trend downward, not upwards.

As a consolation prize, “Endgame” made $29.4 million. That brings its domestic total to $770 million, surpassing "Titanic's" $761 million. Only “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has earned more domestically with $936.6 million. Worldwide “Endgame” has now earned $2.61 billion. Will the film have enough momentum to surpass “Avatar’s” $2.78 billion to become the highest grossing film (unadjusted for inflation) of all time? I know which way I'm leaning.

In its second weekend, “Pokemon Detective Pikachu” fell 54% from last week’s numbers with $24.8 million. That brings the film’s domestic total to $94 million. Internationally the film continues to do remarkably well adding $53 million for a worldwide total of $287 million. There will be sequels.

“A Dog’s Journey,” sequel to 2017’s “A Dog’s Purpose,” finished the weekend with $8. That’s considerably less than the $18 million the original opened to. However, the original earned 68% of its worldwide total of $205 million overseas and that trend appears to be continuing as the sequel made $15.5 million internationally. A worldwide total of $23.4 million isn't great, it's certainly better than what the domestic haul suggests.

“The Hustle,” a gender-swap remake of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” brought in $6 million this weekend for a domestic total of $23 million.

Romantic drama “The Sun is Also a Star” managed only $2.6 million despite being shown in 2,073 theaters. That’s $1,254 per theater. “Endgame” in its fourth weekend is averaging $6.969 per theater.