Shazam! won the weekend debuting with a higher than expected earning of $53.5 million domestically. Leading up to the film’s release expectations pegged the film at $40 million. The use of early release events, which net the film $3 million, and early preview screenings created a positive word of mouth that helped boost the film.

The film is well received with an “A” CinemaScore and 92% from critics and 90% from the audience on RottenTomatoes. The audience was 57% male and 55% aged 25 or older.

Internationally, the film earned $102 million from 79 markets. It opens in Japan on April 19. Worldwide the film has earned $158.8 million so far. With a budget of just $100 million, the film is in a nice place going forward.

The movie has two weeks to really bring in the word of mouth dollars as Avengers: Endgame then opens. It’s possible the film will receive a slight boost from that as people want to see “comic” films and Endgame will be sold out, but more likely just Captain Marvel will see a boost.

I second place was the remake for Pet Sematary which earned an estimated $25 million. That’s about expectations. Internationally the film earned $17.3 million from 46 markets. The film has received fairly negative reviews with a “C+” CinemaScore. The audience was 52% female and 58% was aged 25 and older.

Dumbo dropped to third place in its second week earning an estimated $18.2 million, a 60.4% drop. Internationally the film earned an estimated $39.6 million from 55 markets and a worldwide earning of just short of $214 million so far.

Us dropped to fourth place with an estimated $13.8 million domestically and $10.3 million internationally. The film has earned an amazing $216.6 million worldwide so far off of a $20 million budget.

Rounding out the top five was Captain Marvel which earned an estimated $12.7 million to bring its domestic total to $374.1 million after five weeks. It also added $14.1 million internationally to bring its worldwide total to $1.037 billion moving the film into the top 30 films of all-time.

In other comic films….

Alita: Battle Angel dropped from #15 to #20 adding $170,000 to its domestic total and bringing it to $85.3 million after eight weeks.

We’ll be back in an hour for a deeper dive into this year and last year’s comic adaptations.