“Captain America” Soldiers On To Top “Rio 2” In Early Box Office Estimates

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means – early box office figures. Oh joy! As predicted, Captain America stormed the box office this weekend, shield first. The first Avenger and his new foe, the Winter Soldier, were bound to come out on top at some point – it is a Marvel movie after all, but the actual numbers are still a sight to behold. Captain America made $ 41.4 million this weekend, according to studio estimates from Rentrak, via USA Today.

Check out the Winter Soldier trailer below.

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 This adds up to a total of $ 159 million since The Winter Soldier’s release last week – it looks like we have yet another Marvel juggernaut on our hands. Still, it was a close race between the two sequels, Captain America and Rio 2. In the end, Riofell behind with just $ 39 million. The animated comedy has still surpassed predictions however, since analysts pegged it at just $ 36 million. Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo says that Rio benefitted from strong timing, as it takes the baton from other kids’ fare like Frozen, The Lego Movie and Muppets Most Wanted (though all of those have been enjoyed by millions of adults as well.)

And here’s the Rio 2 trailer because we’re good to you like that.

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 The two other newcomers of the weekend also fared better than predicted – though they still fell far behind the top two films. The horror flick Oculus opened to $ 12 million, besting its $ 11 million forecast. In fourth place Kevin Costner’s Draft Day was expected to do $ 8 million, but did much better with $ 9.8 million. Rounding out the top five was young adult sci-fi flick Divergent, which has had a somewhat disappointing run since its release and made just $ 7.5 million on its fourth outing.

Was it the awful reviews that ruined Divergent‘s chances? Or was it doomed from the beginning?