The quick yellow rat jumps over the massive superhero blockbuster—for a night, at least

By William Hughes  |  May 11, 2019 | 4:54pm
Aux Features Film
The quick yellow rat jumps over the massive superhero blockbuster—for a night, at least
Photo: Warner Bros.

Well, it finally happened: A night passed in America in which Avengers: Endgame wasn’t the most lucrative movie playing on theater screens. After two weeks in which the Marvel juggernaut (but not that Marvel Juggernaut) bulldozed the competition—who wisely scheduled basically nothing of their own to get in its lumbering way—it’s finally been felled (for a night, anyway) by the small yellow lightning rat, Detective Pikachu. (Please insert your “It was Super Effective!” jokes here, Pokémon nerds.)

Let’s be clear, though: While the first live-action(-ish) Pokémon movie did beat Endgame for its Friday night returns—bringing in $20.7 million in comparison to Avengers’ $16.2 million—we have to keep a couple of big caveats in mind. For one thing, because box office calculations are weird, that number also takes into account the film’s Thursday night preview showings, which contributed about $6 million to the total. And for another, it’s still being estimated that Marvel’s film will win the weekend, with Pikachu expected to top out, per Deadline, at an estimated $57.4 million—i.e., the biggest opening a video game movie has ever done, but still not enough to unseat Cap and his buddies’ expected $61.7 million in their third trip around the block

Still, though: He’s just one little mouse! (Albeit a little mouse with a very cute detective’s hat.) Unseating the entire Avengers, and their big angry purple friend, for an evening is still something worth celebrating. Bust out some moves, little guy:

 
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