2019 has got off to a fairly slow start at the domestic box office, with ticket sales down on the same period from last year, but it seems business is about to pick up in March as Marvel Studios releases the year’s first superhero blockbuster Captain Marvel.
According to Variety, the movie – which opens in the U.S. on March 8th and stars Brie Larson as U.S. Air Force Pilot turned cosmic superhero Carol Danvers – is tracking a North American opening weekend of between $100 million and $120 million.
Should it reach the lower end of that range, that would put Captain Marvel on par with the last female-fronted superhero blockbuster, Warner Bros. and DC Films’ Wonder Woman, which opened to $103 million back in 2017.
Marvel’s last release, Ant-Man and the Wasp, debuted to $75 million this past July, while fellow franchise launcher Black Panther amassed a whopping $202 million in its first three days last February. Nevertheless, it looks like the MCU is on course for its eleventh $100 million plus opening weekend, and should Captain Marvel manage to reach $120 million, it would give it a better start than Spider-Man: Homecoming, which earned $117 million in its opening weekend in July 2017.
SEE ALSO: Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson has a seven-picture contract with Marvel Studios
Set in the 1990s, Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel is an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that follows the journey of Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes. While a galactic war between two alien races reaches Earth, Danvers finds herself and a small cadre of allies at the center of the maelstrom.
Captain Marvel is being directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Mississippi Grind) and sees Brie Larson (Kong: Skull Island) leading the cast as Carol Danvers alongside Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers), Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy), Lee Pace (Guardians of the Galaxy), Lashana Lynch (Fast Girls), Gemma Chan (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Algenis Perez Soto (Sambá), Rune Temte (Eddie The Eagle), McKenna Grace (I, Tonya), Annette Bening (American Beauty), Ana Ayora (The Big Wedding), Vik Sahay (Chuck), Kenneth Mitchell (Star Trek: Discovery), Chuku Modo (The Good Doctor), Clark Gregg (The Avengers) and Jude Law (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald). It is set for release on March 8th.
