Weekend Box Office Report: May 6-8, 2016

Captain America: Civil War battles to big bucks!

The quarrel between Marvel's mighty heroes attracted a massive crowd this weekend, as CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR ruled the box office with an estimated $181.7 million!

Throwing together a sprawling cast of secondary characters was clearly advantageous for Cap's third "solo" movie — CIVIL WAR's opening weekend itself surpassed the $176.6 million domestic total of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and nearly doubled the $95 million start of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER.

The star-spangled superhero's disagreement with Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark even managed to conquer the huge $174.1 million opening of his IRON MAN 3 on this same weekend in 2013.

With characters assembling from a dozen previous Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (plus a couple of new players), it was only a question of how big of a blockbuster CIVIL WAR would be. Although the expansive roster made it seem more like an AVENGERS movie, the opening of CIVIL WAR did fall a bit short of THE AVENGERS ($207.4 million) and last summer's AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON ($191.2 million).

But CIVIL WAR did have the fifth-highest opening weekend in history, and also defeated the recently released costumed clash from the distinguished competition — BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE opened to $166 million in March.

Still, even with Cap's colossal opening weekend, the highest domestic total of 2016 (for the time being) remains another Marvel comic-book adaptation: DEADPOOL's $362 million.

Thanks to its overseas head start, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR had already collected $292 million internationally before going into the weekend, and the sequel now sits at a worldwide total of $678.3 million. (CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, also directed by the Russo brothers, finished its entire theatrical run with $714 million worldwide.)

Marvel and Disney's PG-13 ensemble brawl cost a reported $250 million to produce, and critics cheered the fisticuffs with 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Disney's own THE JUNGLE BOOK finally relinquished the box office throne after three weekends on top, moving to second place with another $21.8 million for a domestic total of $284.9 million. Director (and previous MCU participant) Jon Favreau's live-action version of the Rudyard Kipling story has generated $776 million worldwide.

Getting a boost from the actual holiday was director Garry Marshall's comedy MOTHER'S DAY, moving up a spot to third place with $9 million, a 7% increase from its opening last weekend for a $20.7 million 10-day domestic total.

Everything else on the list wrestled for leftovers. The action-fantasy THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR was in fourth with $3.5 million, and has managed to pull in $146 million worldwide so far. The R-rated kitten comedy KEANU from Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele landed in fifth with $3 million, down 67% from last week's opening for a 10-day total of $15.1 million (its approximate production cost).

BARBERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT was in sixth with $2.7 million, closely followed by Disney's third smash in the Top 10 ZOOTOPIA with $2.6 million. In addition to a domestic total that is now almost an incredible four-and-a-half times that of its $75 million opening weekend, the talking animal 'toon is up to a worldwide total of $956 million.

At the bottom of the list were Melissa McCarthy's R-rated comedy THE BOSS, the videogame adaptation RATCHET & CLANK (plunging 70% from its opening last week), and BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE after seven weekends in theaters, while the Kevin Costner action-thriller CRIMINAL departed the chart.

Next weekend offers the George Clooney/Julia Roberts thriller MONEY MONSTER and the horror movie THE DARKNESS, and limited releases include Tom Hiddleston in HIGH-RISE, Colin Farrell in THE LOBSTER and Ewan McGregor as Jesus in LAST DAYS IN THE DESERT.

For CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, are you Team Cap or Team Iron Man? VOTE HERE!