Movie

The Chloe Zao-directed movie falls short of the expectations of $75 million, but still posts the fourth-best opening weekend for any movie during the pandemic.

• Nov 8, 2021

AceShowbiz - "Eternals" is unleashed to a strong opening at box office despite flat reviews. The latest Marvel movie debuts at No. 1 in North America with an estimated $71 million on its first weekend.

The opening number fell slightly short of the industry projections, which had the superhero film debuting to $75 million to $80 million. It, however, still scored the fourth-best opening weekend for any movie during the pandemic era, sliding in behind Marvel's own "Black Widow" ($80.3 million) and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" ($75.3 million) as well as "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" ($90 million). It pushed "F9", which previously landed at No. 4 with $70 million, to No. 5.

The strong opening number of "Eternals" is quite at odds with its reviews. The movie received an approval rating of 48%, with an average rating of 5.6/10, based on 296 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-rated MCU film and the first installment to be classified as "rotten" on the website.

"No matter the reviews, no matter the release date, (fans) are going to show up in big numbers," Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore, said of the reason why audiences still rushed to watch the movie despite the not-so-flattering reviews. "And it is a rare thing indeed to have that."

The next weeks will be a real test to see if the movie will gain some momentum as it will face competitions from "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" and "King Richard" starring Will Smith. "It will be a real test of the film's resilience, and how much reviews actually do matter," Dergarabedian added.

With the arrival of "Eternals", "Dune" is knocked down to No. 2 with approximately $7.6 million. "No Time to Die" is unmoved at No. 3 with additional $6.2 million, followed by "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" at No. 4. Rounding out the top five this week is "Ron's Gone Wrong", which rises three spots with an estimated $3.6 million.

Top 10 of North America Box Office (Nov. 05-07, 2021):

1. "Eternals" - $71 million
2. "Dune" - $7.6 million
3. "No Time to Die" - $6.2 million
4. "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" - $4.5 million
5. "Ron's Gone Wrong" - $3.6 million
6. "The French Dispatch" - $2.6 million
7. "Halloween Kills" - $2.4 million
8. "Spencer" - $2.1 million
9. "Antlers" - $2 million
10. "Last Night in Soho" - $1.8 million