Kicking off the summer box office in super-heroic style Captain America: Civil War scorched the weekend box office, bringing in $181.8 million , the fifth largest opening weekend of all-time. In terms of opening-weekend rankings, Civil War shot past Iron Man 3($174 million) to come in at No. 5 behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens($248 million), Jurassic World ($208.8 million), The Avengers ($207.4 million) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.3 million), not accounting for inflation. Put another way, Disney claims four of the five top openings (Jurassic World was released by Universal). 

The Captain America franchise continues to show the greatest film-over-film growth as Civil War‘s opening is a 91.3% increase over the opening for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Combined with its international release a week earlier, Civil War has now earned $678.4 million global and has already surpassed the lifetime international cumes of Captain America ($194M), Iron Man($267M), Thor ($268M), Iron Man 2 ($312M), Ant-Man ($339M), Thor: The Dark World ($438M), Guardians of the Galaxy ($440M) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($455M).

The massive debut contributed to Disney bringing in over $200 million this weekend as the studio became the fastest to cross the $1 billion mark in domestic earnings in just 128 days, decimating the 165 day record set by Universal just last year. On top of that, Disney has also become the fastest studio to reach $2 billion internationally and $3 billion globally, surpassing the previous industry records set last year in June.

 

 

A few weeks after Batman and Superman squared off, it’s now time for Team Cap and Team Iron Man to battle in Captain America: Civil War. The only difference? This time, the critics actually have good things to say. After its early screenings, Captain America: Civil War has netted a universal positive response, with many critics saying that the longest Marvel movie ever is also one of the best.

100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

The most mature and substantive picture to have yet emerged from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. ~Variety

“the best Marvel Studios movie yet,” in the studio’s 13 film oeuvre ~Empire

“Civil War” strikes that admirable balance: serious-minded action that never forgets to indulge in serious fun. ~ Dave White, The Wrap

‘Captain America: Civil War’ Wins Crown For Best Pure Superhero Movie ~Forbes
A “damn-near-perfect popcorn crowd-pleaser.” If 2011’s The First Avenger was a war movie, and its 2014 sequel a paranoia-fuelled thriller, Civil War starts as a muscular crime movie in the mould of Michael Mann’s Heat, the Russo brothers significantly upping their game in terms of high-impact, shield-slinging action. ~Jordan Farley, Total Film

“Five stars – The best Marvel film yet.” Who needs a villain when you have Steve and Tony? Both protagonists. Both antagonists. And drawing other power-people to their cause in surprising ways. The clashes go far beyond the set-up squabbles of Avengers Assemble. Or even that other big 2016 superhero showdown. Forget Batman v Superman. Here you get Ant-Man v Spider-Man, Hawkeye v Black Widow, Scarlet Witch v Vision, The Winter Soldier v Black Panther and (well, duh) Captain America v Iron Man, all rolled into one. And that is what you call the ultimate Marvel superhero event.  ~Dan Jolin, Empire Magazine
Outstanding performances from Chris Evans as Steve Rogers and Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark and  “ a goldmine for Marvel nerds”. ~ Brian Truitt, USA Today

Call it “civil war” or call it brand extension; call it a “cinematic universe” or a corporate behemoth – the latest Marvel extravaganza furthers the studio’s cross-pollination of action franchises in a way that’s sure to satisfy devotees. ~Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

A gargantuan entertainment that finds room for a little emotional resonance underneath the sterling spectacle, “Captain America: Civil War” is a well-paced, thoroughly satisfying, completely overstuffed action-thriller. ~ Tim Grierson, Screen International

“Captain America: Civil War isn’t just a great Marvel movie, it’s a great movie.” ~ Vulture

No major studio in Hollywood has been firing on all cylinders quite like Disney lately. In addition to the creative resurrection of Star Wars, the seemingly unstoppable commercial might of the Marvel films, and the by-now taken-for-granted genius of Pixar, the Mouse House has less noisily been rummaging around in its celluloid closet and giving some of its more mothball-scented animated classics up-to-the-minute live-action makeovers. Last year, director Kenneth Branagh splashed a fresh coat of candy-colored paint onto Cinderella (with a huge assist from Cate Blanchett’s venomous wicked stepmother).  Now, it’s The Jungle Book’s turn in the rotation – and, it may be one of the biggest surprises of 2016!

Here is what the critics are saying about Disney’s  The Jungle Book:

Groundbreaking and magical ~ The Independent

A Wildly Imaginative Visual Treat For All Ages ~Forbes

This ‘Dazzling’ and ‘Charming’ Live-Action Remake Is an ‘Utterly Immersive’ Experience ~Us Magazine

Maintaining the buoyant heartbeat beneath all the digital flash, Favreau never loses sight of the fact that hes making an adventure story for children ~Variety

The Jungle Book is shot beautifully, and has a fantastic sense of wonder within the world being created. That translates into big-screen magic. ~ Cinemablend

As lovely to behold as it is engrossing to watch, The Jungle Book is the rare remake that actually improves upon its predecessors — all while setting a new standard for CGI. ~Rotten Tomatoes

Disney’s return to the story of The Jungle Book might feel bigger and look better than anything that’s come before, but at its core is a very human tale that resonates just as strongly no matter how spectacular its visual wrappings. ~IGN

In every way, this quietly majestic film should be considered a triumph. The familiar, picaresque story of a young boy raised by forest creatures but fated to re-join Man has been re-imagined as a funny, scary, affecting family adventure with mythic heft but a refreshing lack of swagger. It was made with the latest in movie-making technology but has the ethical values and wide-net storytelling sensibility of an Old Hollywood classic. At its best it feels as though it always existed and we are only now discovering it.  ~Roger Ebert

“spectacular revival of Disney’s family favourite“terrifically enjoyable piece of old-fashioned storytelling and a beautiful-looking film: spectacular, exciting, funny and fun” ~The Guardian

The Jungle Book is one of the stronger of Disney’s live-action adaptations. It’s a true family-friendly adventure that’s smart and often thrilling. ~  Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

This Jungle Book works, because Favreau has both a sense of humor and a sense of spectacle. ~Stephanie Zacharek, Time Magazine

Like all classic Disney productions, “The Jungle Book” possesses its share of fear, suffering and loss. But somehow the audience comes out whistling – in this case, with joy and quite a bit of awe. Ann Hornaday ~ Washington Post

Jon Favreau’s Flashy Reboot is the Future of the Blockbuster ~Indiewire

Director Jon Favreau and an all-star cast turns Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale into a feast for the eyes ~Rolling Stone

In a  surprising maneuver, Marvel/Disney dropped the social media embargo for Captain America: Civil War on April 8th — a full month before the film is set to debut giving us our first look at the next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While most movie reviews tend to be published close to the date when a film opens, that timing usually doesn’t reflect when the individual film critic has actually seen the film in question. Most major releases are screened for the press under embargo agreements, by which an outlet agrees to withhold publishing a review until a specific date in exchange for the courtesy of an early viewing. And though review embargos often served a practical purpose in evening the playing field between big and small market outlets, they have also been known to be set up so as to prevent news of a bad movie from getting out too far ahead of its release.

Well no bad news here!

The results? Wildly positive from both fans and critics alike!

While Marvel Studios’ review embargo for “Captain America: Civil War” doesn’t lift until April 13, initial reactions from the critics’ advance screening are lighting up Twitter — and the response is overwhelmingly positive

Critics who saw the film praised Tom Holland’s Spiderman and Chadwick Bosman’s Black Panther, a couple of prominent action scenes, and overall labeled it the best MCU film to date.

 

Captain America: Civil War opens in U.S. theaters on May 6, 2016, followed by;

Doctor Strange – November 4, 2016

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – May 5, 2017

Spider-Man – July 7, 2017

Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017

Black Panther – February 16, 2018

The Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 – May 4, 2018

Ant-Man and the Wasp– July 6, 2018

Captain Marvel – March 8, 2019

The Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 – May 3, 2019

Inhumans– July 12, 2019

and as-yet untitled Marvel movies on May 1, July 10 and November 6, 2020.

Gizmodo, Screenrant

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has now officially crossed the $2 billion mark at the worldwide box office in just 53 days. With $13.89m worldwide this weekend, the Walt Disney blockbuster brings its worldwide total up to $2.008b worldwide, making it only the third film in history to hit that number. The other movies to have made more than $2 billion are Titanic ($2.19 billion) and Avatar ($2.79 billion) –  unadjusted for inflation.

On Friday, Disney announced The Force Awakens had made $900 million domestically, becoming the only film in history to hit that number.

The Force Awakens’ new global total is one more accomplishment it can add to its long list of box office achievements. Since opening in mid-December, The Force Awakens has set multiple records, including the biggest domestic opening day of all time ($119.1 million), the biggest domestic ($247.9 million) and global ($528.9 million) opening weekend ever, and the fastest film to $1 billion (12 days of global release).

The next adventure in a galaxy far, far away will hit theaters later this year, as Rogue One is released on Dec. 16. Episode VIII will premiere on Dec. 15, 2017.