The box office problems for sequels in North America continues this weekend. Sure, Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” made an incredible amount of money— $118 million domestically—in its opening weekend, but the figure is far down from the early estimates that had the film opening to around $150 million in North America. It’s the largest opening for a “Toy Story” movie ever, and this is excellent news, but that 2019’s summer slump, the fatigue that seems to be setting in with North American moviegoers does seem like it hurt the film a little. $118 million while, a massive chunk of money and a milestone for Pixar, fell below the studio and industry expectations, which is also odd to consider “Toy Story 4” also had the fourth largest animated opening ever.
READ MORE: ‘Toy Story 4’ Is The Surprising, Poignant Epilogue To Pixar’s Finest Franchise [Review]
Also falling short of forecasts were new entries at the box office, UA Releasing‘s “Child’s Play” with $14 million and Lionsgate’s Luc Besson film, “Anna” which couldn’t even crack the top 10 in wide release ($3.5 million), though wasn’t really screened for critics and was seemingly tossed off from a marketing perspective.
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The story beyond that was drop off declines for the aforementioned summer movies having a hard time at the box office. “Men In Black International” already deeply undelivered in its debut last weekend and this weekend, the film fell -64.2% and mustered unremarkable $10.7 million in week two. “The Secret Life of Pets 2” has faced the same problem. The first film as a massive surprise hit— I’m not sure people have realized the original made almost $900 million worldwide. But audiences have not turned up to the sequel at all. 3 weeks in and ‘Pets 2’ sits at $194.6 million worldwide, and it’s already posted its best numbers. The film stands to earn about at least 70% than its predecessor worldwide and approximately 60% less than the $368 million the original made domestically in 2016. Maybe the kiddos miss the comedic voice stylings of Louis C.K.
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“Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and “Dark Phoenix” are also facing bleak fates. While ‘King of the Monsters’ is faring better internationally—the movie has grossed nearly $350 million worldwide, the film is underperforming domestically have just cracked the basic $100 million mark this fourth weekend. 2014’s “Godzilla” earned $200 million domestically, but there’s no way this new version will get even halfway there at this point. No wonder, Legendary is thinking about delaying “Godzilla vs. Kong” and trying to see how they can better position that film for success when it eventually arrives in theaters. Still, ‘King of the Monsters’ might be able to hit $400 million worldwide, which is at least the same amount of its predecessor. The downside, these film cost a fortune to make.
20th Century Fox’s “Dark Phoenix” is doing even worse and pretty much a disaster. Dropping -61% in week three, the “X-Men” movie is only at $60 million domestically, and it’s definitely not going even to crack $100 million domestically. “Dark Phoenix” has grossed $232 million worldwide, but will likely end its run dead last in X-Men film history, the lowest grossing film, domestically and globally of all 12 films, a sad and somewhat pathetic conclusion to the X-Men movie franchise at Fox (though I suppose there’s still “New Mutants” next year. Its abject failure is probably no boon to Marvel either who will likely want to wait a few years for the stink of this failure to dissipate before they try and bring the “X-Men” movies back to glory. Lastly, in the failed I.P. frame, the 2019 “Shaft” has nearly fallen out of the top 10 after two weeks, falling 60% and destined for the annals of totally forgotten status—the film has made only just over $15 million stateside which is a significant flop for Warner Bros. on a brand level.
While it’s not looking great, it’s not quite all doom and gloom for sequels, reboots, and remakes this summer. At $156 million domestically and $289 million globally, “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” is the highest grossing ‘John Wick’ film and by quite the distance. Disney’s “Aladdin” has been the one franchise adaptation that hasn’t suffered, grossing $810 million so far after five weekends, defying critics that were mixed on the film and word of mouth social media buzz which seemingly died out weeks ago. It’s yet another feature in the cap of Disney’s animation to live-action remake sub-genre that evidently has no end in sight.
In limited release, Neon’s “Wild Rose,” Magnolia‘s “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” and the David Hockney documentary “A Bigger Splash” all did relatively well in arthouse theaters which is perhaps the small, tiny sliver silver lining in this weekend’s depressing box office report. In milestones and holdover releases, you’re probably wondering about “Avengers: Endgame.” It’s fallen out of the top 10 and is still about $40 million away from beating the all-time global box office record held by “Avatar.” At its current rate, that’s not happening; Marvel can’t top James Cameron. However, there’s a re-release coming into theaters next weekend with a new post-credits and some bonus DVD/Blu-Ray footage, and maybe that’ll help it tip over the line, but it needs to be a big, significant boost, or it’s still not happening given the home video release begins in just 6 or 7 weeks.
1. Toy Story 4 — Disney— $118,000,000 –
2. Child’s Play — UAR — $14,055,540
3. Aladdin — Disney— $12,200,000 ($287,510,128)
4. Men in Black International — Sony — $10,750,000 ($52,689,654)
5. The Secret Life of Pets 2 — Uni. — $10,290,000 ($117,583,535(
6. Rocketman— Par. — $5,650,000 ($77,328,389)
7. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum — LG/S — $4,075,000 ($156,067,424)
8. Godzilla: King of the Monsters — WB — $3,700,000 ($102,345,637)
9. Dark Phoenix — Fox — $3,600,000 ($60,159,311)
10. Shaft — WB —$3,555,000 ($15,941,394)
