Weekend Box Office Report: April 1-3, 2016

Batman v Superman keeps swinging!

The clash of two major comic book heroes remained the top draw at the box office this weekend as BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE prevailed on top with an estimated $52.3 million!

The bad news is that figure reflects a 68% drop in business from last week's huge opening for director Zack Snyder's superbrawl (nearly identical to MAN OF STEEL's second weekend plunge), and that's without any significant new competition entering theaters.

Still, the PG-13 movie (which cost a reported $250 million) has a 10-day domestic total of $261 million, and an impressive $682 million worldwide.

Disney's ZOOTOPIA held onto second place with $20 million, and its current $787 million worldwide total makes it the highest-grossing global release of 2016 so far.

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2 stayed in third place again with $11.1 million. The sequel to the low-budget 2002 hit lost only 38% of business from its opening last weekend, and has a 10-day domestic total of $36.4 million (double its reported $18 million cost).

The new religious sequel GOD'S NOT DEAD 2 opened in fourth with $8.1 million, already ahead of its reported budget of $5 million (the original started out with $9.2 million and finished with $60 million on a $2 million cost). It was followed by the fellow faith-based MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN in fifth place with $7.5 million, and a $46.8 million domestic total for the Jennifer Garner drama.

THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT was in sixth place with $5.7 million. The third chapter in the series is at a domestic total of $56.3 million after three weekends in theaters (an amount that is close to what each of the first two movies collected on their opening weekends).

In seventh was the thriller 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE with $4.7 million and a worldwide total of $81.7 million (on a reported $15 million cost).

Opening in eighth was the new R-rated comedy MEET THE BLACKS with $4 million (the low-budget Mike Epps spoof of THE PURGE movies was only released in 1000 locations). The Helen Mirren/Alan Rickman/Aaron Paul military thriller EYE IN THE SKY expanded to 1000 screens and came in ninth with $4 million.

After two months in theaters, DEADPOOL tenaciously hangs onto the bottom of the chart with $3.5 million. With a worldwide total of $749 million, the foul-mouthed mercenary's bloody adventure is now both the highest-grossing R-rated release and the biggest X-Men movie. Domestically, its $355 million total makes it the second biggest R-rated release behind THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST's $370 million.

Outside the chart, the Sally Field comedy HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS exited along with LONDON HAS FALLEN. In limited release, Richard Linklater's comedy EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! opened on 19 screens for $323k (a per-screen of $17k), while Don Cheadle's Miles Davis biopic MILES AHEAD had a $30k per-screen average.

The Michael Shannon sci-fi thriller MIDNIGHT SPECIAL added 53 screens for $581k and a total nearing $1 million, while the Tom Hiddleston-starring Hank Williams biopic I SAW THE LIGHT expanded to 741 locations for $745k. The supernatural horror movie THE WITCH was re-released on 666 screens for $465k, and STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS made another $724k even as it became available in homes on VOD.

Next weekend offers R-rated options in the Melissa McCarthy comedy THE BOSS and the first-person action movie HARDCORE HENRY, plus PG-13 chills in the long-delayed horror movie BEFORE I WAKE. Limited releases include the Jake Gyllenhaal drama DEMOLITION and the Sam Rockwell/Anna Kendrick comedy MR. RIGHT.

Which April release are you most interested in seeing? VOTE HERE!