The Toys Are Back in Town as “Toy Story 4” Holds Strong

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report Comments Off on The Toys Are Back in Town as “Toy Story 4” Holds Strong

BOX OFFICE REPORT

June 28-30, 2019

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Toy Story 4 $57.9 million
Annabelle Comes Home  $20.3 million
Yesterday $17 million
Aladdin  $9.3 million
The Secret Life of Pets 2  $7 million

Despite performing below expectations – which isn't the same thing as flopping – Toy Story 4 held strong, taking in more than the next four films combined in its second weekend. In 10 days, it's already passed the first film, and will pass the second in a matter of days. That's terrific, even if it's not an all-consuming force like Disney is expecting all its properties to be now. Worldwide, it's less than $1 million away from passing the second film. This may not be a billion-dollar earner, but it will almost certainly be among the biggest films of the year, here and abroad.

Annabelle Comes Home managed just $20.3 million. That's the lowest opening of any film in the Conjuring universe. Still, it's already logged $31 million since opening late Tuesday. That's more than enough to cover its budget, and while it's likely to finish closer to the original Annabelle ($84.2 million), this franchise is still one of the most profitable in all of Hollywood. (And by the way, that's three movies about killer dolls in the top 10 this week.)

Yesterday opened in third with $17 million. That easily the best career opening for Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. The film should have strong legs, since its target audience has a longer attention span than the first two weekends. This won't be any giant hit, but could be the sleeper success of the summer, considering no movie aimed at adults has done particularly well thus far. Aladdin turned in another successful weekend. With $9.3 million, it's passed $300 million domestic and nearly $875 million worldwide. The Secret Life of Pets 2 dropped to fifth with $131.2 million earned so far.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Maiden, the documentary on the first all-female crew to sail around the world. The film averaged $8,453 on its six screens.
  • Avengers: Endgame's slapdash re-release delivered similarly weak results. Despite a new intro, an "unfinished" deleted scene, and a sneak peak at Spider-Man: Far from Home, it earned a tiny $5.5 million. Certainly not good enough to unseat Avatar as the all-time champ.
  • Child's Play suffered a fatal blow. In its second weekend, it dropped from second to eighth place, adding just $4.2 million.

Next week:

The 4th of July Weekend gets an early start, with the first showings of Spider-Man: Far from Home starting Monday night. That will definitely be your No. 1, but how high will it go? Its predecessor opened with a quite good $117 million, on its way to a spectacular $334 million finish. Now that Peter's more integrated into the MCU, will that mean a bigger opening, or will it be part of the summer trend of lackluster openings? If there's one thing you can count on, it's MCU sequels having bigger openings than the original (Age of Ultron notwithstanding). So I'm betting $150 million at least, and close to $200 million at the end of six days. It's only competition is Midsommar, Ari Aster's follow-up to last year's Hereditary. At best, that will open with $15 million for third place.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.