Box Office: ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Stays in First Place With $15 Million Over Sluggish Oscar Weekend

“Captain America: Brave New World” kept its box office crown for the third weekend in a row, earning $15 million for a first place finish. Its muted victory comes as Hollywood prepares to celebrate itself at the Oscars on Sunday, bringing an end to one of the most tumultuous awards seasons in recent memory.

Despite topping the charts, the Marvel and Disney adventure has struggled to match the success of previous entries in the MCU. It will end the weekend having grossed $163.7 million domestically, a sizable figure for most movies, though a disappointment for this blue chip franchise. “Brave New World” has benefitted from a lack of competition, having primarily faced off against much lower budgeted indie releases. Globally, the superhero sequel, which cost $180 million to make and tens of millions more to market, has earned $341.8 million.

Focus Features’ “Last Breath” debuted to $7.8 million, capturing second place. The survival thriller tells the true story of a group of deep sea divers who have to rescue a colleague stranded in the North Sea. Director Alex Parkinson adapted his 2019 documentary of the same name into a narrative feature. The cast includes Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole. It reportedly cost just under $24 million to produce.

Coming in third, Neon’s horror comedy “The Monkey” earned $6.4 million. That was a sharp second weekend drop of nearly 55% for the film, which may reflect its rough word-of-mouth — “The Monkey” had a C+ grade on Cinema Score. But given that the film, an adaptation of a Stephen King story, was made for just $10 million, it stands to be profitable having already earned $24.6 million domestically.

Sony’s “Paddington in Peru” picked up $4.5 million over its third weekend of release to take fourth place. Domestic grosses for the stuffed bear sequel will hit $31.4 million through Sunday. Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “Dog Man” rounded out the top five, earning $4.2 million in its fifth weekend of release. The family film has earned $84.1 million domestically.

It was a sluggish few days at the multiplexes, with the final tally for the weekend coming in as the second lowest of the year. Overall grosses were down more than 50% from last year, but the comparison was rough considering that the first weekend in March hosted “Dune: Part Two,” which would go on to become one of 2024’s biggest hits. Next weekend will bring the release of “Mickey 17,” Bong Joon-ho’s oft-delayed sci-fi satire that features Robert Pattinson as an expendable clone worker. Movie theater operators are hoping the combination of the Oscar-winning auteur and the “Twilight” star will bring audiences back to cinemas — a place they steered clear of this weekend.