Adorable “Pets” Lead Dismal Box Office Weekend

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BOX OFFICE REPORT

June 7-9, 2019

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

The Secret Life of Pets 2  $47.1 million
Dark Phoenix $33.0 million
Aladdin  $24.5 million
Godzilla: King of the Monsters  $15.5 million
Rocketman $14.0 million

The adorable cats and dogs (and bunnies) of The Secret Life of Pets returned to rule the box office. But in three years, it lost more than half of the last opening weekend. The original – in which the not-yet-disgraced Louis C.K. voiced pup Max – took in a shocking $104 million. This sequel only managed $47.1 million. It's a very sad state of affairs when even animated kids' movies can't dominate. The LEGO Movie 2 faced a similar problem back in February. Toy Story 4 could fall victim to this too, but I doubt it. Only three movies have earned more than $200 million so far this year, and they're all Disney productions.

But it was much worse for the X-Men. Dark Phoenix, in which much of the cast came back to support longtime writer-producer Simon Kinberg, opened with $33 million, by far the worst opening for any film in the franchise. That's $22 million less than Apocalypse opened with just three years ago. It's likely this won't even cross $75 million, easily the worst finish in the nearly 20-year-old series. Probably for the best Disney and the MCU will be taking over and rebooting.

Aladdin slipped to third place, and it's become easily the biggest movie of the summer proper. $300 million is certainly possible. Godzilla: King of the Monsters took a huge fall of nearly 68 percent. It certainly won't come close to the 2014 film's $200 million haul and will likely even fall short of the maligned 1998 version, which finished with $136 million. Rocketman dropped to fifth, and at this point it will be lucky to make even half of what Bohemian Rhapsody crapped out.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Amazon Studios delivered its biggest per theater average ever. Late Night, the Mindy Kaling-Emma Thompson comedy, averaged $62,414 on its four screens. It goes wide next weekend.
  • You can kiss the record goodbye. With $58 million yet to go, Avengers: Endgame won't make enough here or abroad to unseat Avatar from its perch as the biggest global movie ever.
  • John Wick keeps taking down records. It's now made more than the last two entries combined. Between this and Always Be My Maybe, it appears Keanu can do no wrong. (We'll just forget about January's Replicas.)

Next week:

It's going to be more of the same. MIB tries to reboot with the extremely attractive Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in Men in Black International. They had chemistry in Thor: Ragnarok, but we'll see if that translates here. Anything around $50 million would be reasonable. Less and Sony is in serious trouble. Shaft – the sequel to both 2000's Shaft and 1971's Shaft – will be lucky to see $20 million.

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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.