‘Wrinkle in Time’ fails to beat ‘Black Panther’
The PG-rated film is directed by Ava DuVernay and stars Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling and Chris Pine
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.
