Coverage: “Captain America: Civil War” easily dominates the box office

Disney has yet another hit of its hand with Captain America: Civil War dominating box offices during its opening weekend.

The film is estimated to has raked in $181.8 million, according to industry tracker comScore.

Patrick Ryan of USA Today covered the movie’s success:

It was hardly a box-office battle for Teams Cap and Iron Man.

Captain America: Civil War easily won the weekend with an enormous $181.8 million, according to studio estimates from comScore. That gives Marvel’s starry superhero face-off the fifth-biggest opening ever, falling just behind Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.3 million), The Avengers ($207.4 million), Jurassic World ($208.8 million) and Disney’s all-time champ, Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($248 million). Of those five, three are Marvel movies.

Combined with its international release a week earlier, Civil War has now earned $678.4 million globally. Already, it has made more than the superhero’s first big-screen foray, 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, did in its entire run ($176.7 million domestically). Its opening is also nearly $100 million more than its predecessor, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which started with $95 million in 2014.

The CNN Wire detailed how Disney also took home the second highest grossing film of the weekend with The Jungle Book:

However, with strong acclaim from critics and audiences, who gave “Civil War” a CinemaScore of “A,” the film looks to have long-term playability over the next weeks and months.

“Though the excitement surrounding the film escalated the opening weekend projections to perhaps unrealistic highs, the long-term appeal for ‘Civil War’ is undeniable,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore. “It should put the film in one of the top slots on the all-time global box office list when the film completes its theatrical run.”

Disney also took the second spot at this weekend’s domestic box office with “The Jungle Book,” which brought in $21.9 million.

The reboot of the animated classic has so far made $776.2 million worldwide since opening last month.

With its substantial opening, “Civil War” did not just kick off the summer movie season in a big way, but it set the table for a stellar year at the cinemas for Disney.

The studio has more potential blockbusters on its schedule with Pixar’s “Finding Dory” next month, Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” in November, and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” in December.

Brooks Barnes of The New York Times explained how this film’s success proves once again Disney is the dominant player in the movie industry:

Disney has now had the No. 1 movie in the United States and Canada in 11 of the last 21 weekends, and some box office analysts predict “Civil War” will remain the top draw for the next two weekends. After that, a new movie — also from Disney — may well take over the top slot: “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” Not long after, Disney will release one of the summer’s most anticipated movies: “Finding Dory,” a sequel to Pixar’s “Finding Nemo.”

“Civil War” cost about $250 million to make, not including marketing costs. It introduces movie audiences to a new Marvel superhero, Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman. “Great reviews, great social media buzz and long-term global playability will add up to major box office returns over the long haul,” Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at comScore, said in an email on Sunday.

“Civil War” kicked off moviedom’s all-important summer season, which stretches from the first weekend in May until Labor Day. This time around, studios will introduce at least 16 films with production costs of $100 million or more (sometimes much more), compared with 10 last year. With that many giants fighting for attention, some analysts have warned of cannibalism.

“It is difficult to envision a scenario in which a significant number of this summer’s releases are not money-losers, or at least disappointments,” Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen and Company, wrote in a research note on Thursday.