Two Disney pictures with black directors dominated at the box office over the weekend, with newcomer A Wrinkle in Time finishing second behind the juggernaut that is Black Panther.
That Ryan Coogler-directed blockbuster maintained its box office dominance for the fourth week running, adding an estimated $41.1 million (Dh150.92 million) to its domestic earnings, above analysts’ expectations of $35 million, and raising its cumulative ticket sales to $562 million, according to the measurement firm ComScore.
On Saturday, the film surpassed the $1 billion mark globally, the 16th Disney release to reach that milestone and the fifth Marvel Cinematic Universe picture to do so. The other Marvel movies to gross more than a billion dollars at the box office are The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War.
Debuting in second place, Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time came in soft with $33.3 million, slightly lower than the $35 million some analysts had expected heading into the weekend.
The PG-rated film is directed by Ava DuVernay and stars Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling and Chris Pine. It’s based on the 1962 novel by Madeleine L’Engle about a young girl who explores the cosmos in search of her father.
Though the film, whose production budget was more than $100 million, came in under expectations, it still managed to top recent Disney live-action disappointments such as Steven Spielberg’s The BFG and Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland.
A Wrinkle in Time earned mixed reviews, getting a B rating from audience polling firm CinemaScore and a 42 per cent positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Also new over the weekend, Aviron Pictures’ Strangers: Prey at Night opened in third place with $10.4 million.
The low-budget horror sequel about a family road trip gone awry came in above analysts’ predictions of $7 million to $9 million. The film is a follow-up to 2008’s The Strangers, distributed by Rogue Pictures. Prey at Night received a C rating on CinemaScore and a 37 per cent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
