Friday Report: 'Batman v Superman' Falls But Still Leads, 'God's Not Dead 2' Underperform

     All hopes that the superhero blockbuster 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' would be critic-proof and immune to mixed word-of-mouth were eliminated this weekend as the box office juggernaut fell harder than even the most front-loaded of them all. Opening this weekend were 'God's Not Dead 2' and 'Meet the Blacks', with the former coming in below expectations and the latter coming in ahead of them.

     Easily retaining first place on Friday, DC's $250-million superhero tentpole 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' plummeted an awful 81.2% from its massive opening day to gross $15.4 million. Horrid reviews and middling word-of-mouth is obviously having an effect on the film, as it now looks like only the big fans and some casual moviegoers are checking it out at this point. That huge drop is worse than 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (-74.9%), 'The Dark Knight Rises' (-76.6%), 'Spider-Man 3' (-71.3%), 'Man of Steel' (-71.5%), 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' (-75.8%), 'Watchmen' (-78.4%), 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army' (-76.1%), and even the 2015 flop 'Fantastic Four' (-78.2%). In fact, it's the worst drop for a big-budget comic book movie in history! Three of the previously mentioned films had worse critic or audience scores ('Wolverine', 'Fant4stic', and 'Watchmen', although it's going to come in lower than the latter by next week), which makes this even more embarassing. However, the mega-budget superhero mashup has so far grossed a strong $224.4 million in two weeks, which ranks as the 11th biggest eight-day gross ever. Expect a sophomore frame of around $50 million, which is a solid figure when you're looking at just the grosses but disappointing once you factor in the percentage drops.
     'Zootopia' remained in second place this weekend, grossing an estimated $5.6 million on Friday and dropping a solid 41.5% from last week. The $150-million animated dramedy from Walt Disney Animation Studios has grossed a very impressive $261.5 million in 29 days of release, and should make around $20 million for the weekend. 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' continued to occupy third with $3.4 million, down a slightly concerning 53.3% from opening day. However, it should have strong holds going through the weekend, and with $28.8 million already, it shouldn't disappoint. A weekend of around $11 million is likely.
     'God's Not Dead 2' came in below expectations yesterday, grossing $3 million (including $400k from Thursday night showings). Despite opening in about three times as many locations, there just wasn't a need for another one of these films, especially since there's already a couple strong faith-based performers in the market place already that are doing more memorable business. Its Friday haul was just ahead of the impressive $2.8 million take of its 2014 predecessor, and adjusting for inflation just makes it look even worse. However, this shouldn't be considered a loss as its production budget is a mere $5 million, and it will easily make that back in the next couple of days. However, when it comes to expectations, this is a slight disappointment as many projected a $10m-$15m debut. Instead, $8 million seems more doable.
     In a dismal seventh place, Freestyle's 'Meet the Black's played like many recent spoofs and brought in $1.4 million. That's below January's 'Fifty Shades of Black', which opened to a poor $2.3 million on its way to a $5.9 million. Should 'Blacks' follow that films patter, a $3.5 million weekend is in store. However, given that there isn't a Tomatometer score for it yet and early word-of-mouth is extremely negative (27% on RT), a weekend of around $3 million is more likely.

Weekend Forecast

1. 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' - $51.8 million (-68.8%)

2. 'Zootopia' - $19.7 million (-17.9%)

3. 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' - $11.6 million (-35.2%)

4. 'God's Not Dead 2' - $8.3 million

5. 'Miracles from Heaven' - $8 million (-17.5%)

-.  'Meet the Blacks' - $3.2 million