It was a mighty Memorial Day for mutant superheroes, with X-Men: Apocalypse reigning supreme over the four-day holiday weekend. The same couldn’t be said for the other sequel to premiere over the weekend, as Alice Through the Looking Glass fell far short of expectations.
The follow-up to 2014’s timeline-twisting X-Men: Days of Future Past earned an estimated $80 million over long its opening weekend, giving it the 10th best historic premiere for the holiday weekend. The film’s U.S. debut brought its worldwide gross to $265.8 million after its strong opening overseas.
While the opening weekend for Apocalypse was a decent — but not great — debut by industry standards, the film earned quite a bit less than prior X-Men films that premiered over the same holiday weekend. Days of Future Past earned just over $110 million on the same weekend two years ago, while the much-maligned X-Men: The Last Stand earned $122.8 million across all four days in 2006.
Things were looking considerably less rosy for Alice Through the Looking Glass, which opened to just $34.1 million over the weekend. During a year when every Walt Disney Pictures project seems to be printing money, the underwhelming performance of Alice is a reminder that any studio — no matter how much of a roll it’s on — is prone to an occasional flop.
| # | Title | Weekend | U.S. Total | Worldwide Total |
| 1. | X-Men: Apocalypse | $80M | $80M | $265.8M |
| 2. | Alice Through the Looking Glass | $34.1M | $34.1M | $99.1M |
| 3. | The Angry Birds Movie | $24.6M | $72.2M | $229.4M |
| 4. | Captain America: Civil War | $19.7M | $377.2M | $1,107.9M |
| 5. | Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising | $11.4M | $40.6M | $77.2M |
| 6. | The Jungle Book | $9.2M | $340.7M | $879.8M |
| 7. | The Nice Guys | $8.1M | $23.5M | $23.5M |
| 8. | Money Monster | $5.5M | $35.2M | $52M |
| 9. | Love & Friendship | $3.1M | $4.1M | $4.1M |
| 10. | Zootopia | $1.1M | $336.1M | $991.7M |
The rest of the weekend’s top movies were all returning films, with one particular project hitting a pretty important milestone.
In its fourth weekend in theaters, Captain America: Civil War moved past Deadpool to become the year’s highest-grossing film in the U.S. The Marvel Studios sequel was already the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide, and now holds that title both domestically and abroad. And with quite a few weeks likely left in its theatrical run, Civil War stands a good chance of holding on to that title for at least a few months.
The only major release expected to challenge X-Men: Apocalypse in the upcoming week is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which is likely to win the weekend due to the X-Men sequel’s shaky standing. How much it wins the weekend by is the real question, though.
