Captain Marvel Beat The Box Office Odds

Photo Credit:  Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

Captain Marvel was always destined to be a hit film, the question was just how big it would end up being. The Marvel movie leading up Avengers: Endgame was projected to makes around $120 million leading up to its opening weekend. Then the backlash came. The film’s star, Brie Larson, made comments pushing for more equality in the MCU. Captain Marvel was the first of 21 films with a female lead, making her comments seem fairly harmless.

Still, a segment of the online community came out in full force against her, calling her a “man-hater” and screaming for film fans to boycott Captain Marvel in favor of Alita: Battle Angel. The only difference between the two films was that one’s star wasn’t making “social just warrior” statements.

A concern then rose that Captain Marvel could disappoint and open closer to $60 or $80 million. After all, this was this same community that caused the failure of 2016’s female driven Ghostbusters reboot. Now a new Ghostbusters film is being made, ignoring that one ever existed.

By the end of Sunday is it was reported that Captain Marvel blew away expectations, taking in an estimated $153 million. That number is more than $30 million over the original $120 million projection, making it one of the highest grossing opening weekends for the company. Next up, Captain Marvel will appear in Avengers: Endgame, lending Earth’s mightiest heroes a much needed hand after Thanos snapped away half of the universe.