BOX OFFICE: TOY STORY 4 wins again as ANNABELLE COMES HOME takes 2nd place
Welcome to the Beat’s Weekend Box Office Recap!
It was a fairly bleh and uneventful weekend at the box office with two new wide releases and very few surprises.
Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 4 remained #1 with an estimated $57.9 million, down 52% from its opening weekend, a little steeper drop than expected. The $236.9 million it grossed in North America in its first ten days, putting it slightly ahead of 2010’s Toy Story 3. More importantly, the Pixar sequel is close to the $500 million mark worldwide as it added another 80.6 million overseas this weekend for $496.5 million globally. Despite it opening lower than projected, it’s still going to be seen as another hit for the Mouse House, who has now released the top four movies of 2019.
Opening on Weds. with previews on Tuesday night, New Line’s horror sequel Annabelle Comes Home brought Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson’s Lorraine and Ed Warren back into the mix with mostly positive reviews from the critics. Directed by regular screenwriter Gary Dauberman, the spinoff sequel/prequel made $3.5 million in Tuesday previews (starting at 5pm) and $7.2 million in its first day (including previews), going into the weekend with $10.8 million banked. Annabelle ended up making $20.4 million over the weekend and $31.2 million in its opening week. Overseas, Annabelle was even more successful, making $45 million with Mexico leading the way with $6.9 million. The horror movie’s “B-“ CinemaScore, lower than the “B” score received by the previous Annabelle movies.
The only pleasant surprise of the weekend was Danny Boyle’s Beatles-inspired comedy Yesterday, written by Richard Curtis, opening in third place with $17 million in 2,603 theaters. It stars newcomer Himesh Patel who wakes up from a bicycle accident to a world who has forgotten the Beatles. It also stars Lily James, Kate McKinnon and pop star Ed Sheeran. Surprisingly, it ended up with a higher per-theater-average than Annabelle’s with $6,531 per venue with audiences giving the movie an “A-“ CinemaScore. That’s also significantly higher than my earlier prediction, which actually makes me happy since it’s one of my favorite movies of the year.
Sony opened next week’s Spider-Man: Far from Home early overseas this weekend, most notably in China, where it made $98 million, followed by Japan with $9.4 million and Hong Kong with $3.8 million. The sequel to 2017’s Homecoming, starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man, will open in North America on Tuesday where it’s expected to rule the week of the 4th of July.
Disney’s Aladdin continues to be one of the surprise hits of the summer, taking fourth place this weekend with $9.3 million, enough to help it cross the $300 million milestone with $305.9 million. That makes it the third highest-grossing movie of the year domestically with the top 4 movies all being Disney releases.
Somehow, Universal Pictures’ The Secret Life of Pets 2 managed to stay in fifth place in its fourth weekend with $7.1 million, but it’s one of the many sequels floundering this summer. So far, it’s only grossed $131.2 million domestically with less than $100 million overseas, not the summer tentpole performance Universal was expecting.
Sony isn’t faring much better as Men in Black: International dropped to sixth place with $6.5 million (down 39% from last week) as it has only made $65 million in North America since opening three weeks ago. The Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson starrer is doing better overseas, having made $154 million, but it’s still not the hit Sony was probably hoping for.
Still trying to surpass that Avatar global box office record, Marvel Studios rereleased its blockbuster mega-hit Avengers: Endgame into 1,000 more theaters with 6 minutes of additional footage (including a Spider-Man preview). That was enough to get a nice bump back into the top 10, as Endgame took seventh place with $5.5 million in 2,025 theaters or $2,734 per theater. It made another $2.3 million internationally this weekend, bringing its global total to $2.76 billion, so it’s still $27 million behind Avatar, which had its own rerelease bump. Kind of silly with the amount of money that Endgame has already made that Disney is chasing after that last record.
Orion Pictures’ horror reboot Child’s Play took a massive plunge from 2nd place down to #8 with $4.3 million, off 70% from its opening weekend, obviously affected by the presence of Annabelle. It has grossed $23.4 million, and that’s enough to be considered profitable since it only cost $100 million to make.
The top 10 was rounded out by Paramount’s Rocketman with $3.9 million and Lionsgate’s hit sequel John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum with $3.2 million. The former is still working its way very slowly to $100 million, but the latter is one of Lionsgate’s biggest hits in years as it crossed $300 million worldwide with $161.3 million of that in North America.
As far as limited releases, Sony Pictures Classics’ Maiden about Tracy Edwards’ around-the-world sailing race with an all-woman crew took in roughly $50,000 in six theaters, an average of $8,500 per site.
This Week’s Top 10:
| Rank | Last Week Rank | Movie | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross |
| 1 | 1 | Toy Story 4 | Disney | $57.9 million | -52 | $236.9 million |
| 2 | New | Annabelle: Comes Home | New Line/WB | $14.1 million | N/A | $31.2 million |
| 3 | New | Yesterday | Universal | $17 million | N/A | $17 million |
| 4 | 1 | Aladdin | Disney | $9.3 million | -29% | $305.86 million |
| 5 | 5 | The Secret Life of Pets 2 | Universal | $7.1 million | -31% | $131.2 million |
| 6 | 4 | Men in Black International | Sony | $6.5 million | -39% | $65 million |
| 7 | 13 | Avengers: Endgame | Marvel/Disney | $5.5 million | +178% | $841.3 million |
| 8 | 2 | Child’s Play | U.A. Releasing | $4.3 million | -70% | $23.4 million |
| 9 | 5 | Rocketman | Paramount | $3.9 million | -31% | $84.2 million |
| 10 | 6 | John Wick Chapter 3 | Lionsgate | $3.2 million | -22% | $161.3 million |
The top 10 was down about $30 million from this same weekend last year when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was #1 for a second weekend with under $61 million, and Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 made $46.4 million in its third weekend. The new movies were the sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado, which was #3 with $19 million, while the basketball comedy Uncle Drew opened in fourth with $15.2 million.
Check back on Tuesday (one day early this week!) for The Beat‘s Box Office Preview looking at yet another sequel, Spider-Man: Far from Home from Sony and Marvel Studios, as well as Ari Aster’s latest horror film, Midsommar.
