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Pokemon: Detective Pikachu Has Best Video Game Movie Debut Ever in U.S., Earns US$54 Million (Updated)

The Box Office Mojo website reports that Rob Letterman's live-action Pokémon Detective Pikachu film earned US$54 million in its opening weekend in the United States. That would be the highest U.S. opening weekend box office for any film adaptation of a video game (unadjusted for inflation), topping Lara Croft Tomb Raider's US$47.7 million in 2001. Detective Pikachu is already the #11 highest-grossing video game film in the United States so far.

The Variety entertainment news source also reported that Detective Pikachu earned an estimated US$103 million outside the United States this weekend. That is slightly higher than Avengers: Endgame's overseas estimate of US$102 million in its third weekend. Detective Pikachu would be the top film at the international weekend box office, if the actual totals reported on Monday match these estimates. Detective Pikachu's total includes US$40.8 million in China, US$6.6 million in the United Kingdom, US$5 million in Germany, and US$4.97 million in Mexico.

In the United States, Detective Pikachu ranked #2 for the weekend below Endgame, which earned US$63,299,066. Between both the domestic and foreign box offices, Detective Pikachu has earned a combined total of US$167 million. (2016's Warcraft is still the highest grossing video game film worldwide with US$433 million.) Detective Pikachu had a reported production budget of US$150 million.

The film opened in Japan on May 3 at #3, below Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire and Endgame.

The film stars Justice Smith as main character Tim Goodman and Ryan Reynolds as Detective Pikachu. Letterman directed the film, with a script by Nicole Perlman and Letterman. A sequel has reportedly already been greenlit.

Sources: Box Office Mojo (link 2), Variety (Rebecca Rubin), ICv2 (Tom Flinn)

Update: Lara Croft Tomb Raider's opening weekend box office total of US$47,735,743 in June 2001 would be worth about US$68,532,430 in April 2019, when adjusted for inflation.

Update 2: Detective Pikachu's actual weekend box office total in the United States was US$54,365,242.