Weekend Wrap-Up

By Tim Briody

June 30, 2019

So drunk

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The summer continues as we have a weekend where it once again feels like everything got out of the way of last weekend’s big release, only for that to be entirely unnecessary in hindsight. Toy Story 4 again takes the weekend fairly easily, and while it’s not going to match the heights of some recent Pixar entries, there’s a lot fewer questions than last weekend.

With a 52% decline from opening weekend, Toy Story 4 earns $57.9 million this weekend, giving it $236.9 million in just two weekends. The somewhat unexpectedly low opening was largely countered by some strong summer weekdays. It’s not to the heights of last year’s Incredibles 2, which had $349.7 million after ten days, while 2016’s Finding Dory had $286.2 million. If you want to go all the way back to 2010, Toy Story 3 had $226.8 million after two weekends, so we have a much better idea of where Toy Story 4 is going, which is at bare minimum $400 million. Next weekend is also a holiday weekend (with the 4th of July falling on a Thursday) and that’s something that’s also in its favor.

If the $120 million opening could be considered disappointing, as much as something that opens that huge can be, things are certainly looking much better for Toy Story 4 right now, and while it’s about to be shoved out of the top spot in a big way, it’s in line for a strong holiday weekend next week.

Opening in second is Annabelle Comes Home, yet another chapter in the surprisingly resilient Conjuring franchise, though the cracks are beginning to show. With $20.3 million, the third Annabelle film has the lowest opening weekend of the now seven films in the series. That’s two previous Conjuring films, two previous Annabelle films, plus last year’s The Nun and this past April’s The Curse of La Llorona, for those scoring at home. Annabelle: Creation arrived in August 2017 and opened with $35 million and earned $102 million. With this opening, Annabelle Comes Home is not going to match that, and may not match the total of the original Annabelle from 2014, with $84.2 million. It had a reported cost of $27 million so Warner Bros. will still profit off of it, but beyond next year’s planned Conjuring Part 3, it might be time to pump the brakes on future sequels and spinoffs, or at least scale back the budgets.

Taking third is our other opener this weekend, the fantasy comedy Yesterday. From Danny Boyle, it’s am amusing British comedy about waking up one day to be the only person who remembers The Beatles, which is also one of this site’s founders worst nightmares. Opening with a very solid $17 million, Yesterday overcame mediocre reviews (59% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) to play well with some older audiences who also remember The Beatles (my parents asked about seeing it, and they rarely do that). The decent opening sets it up to be Danny Boyle’s second most successful film domestically after Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire ($141.3 million) and currently that’s 2003’s 28 Days Later with a mere $45 million.




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Aladdin cruises past $300 million with $9.3 million in its 6th weekend, falling just 29% and giving it $305.8 million to date. After it became a joke on the internet after the first revealed images of Blue Will Smith, Aladdin has quietly been incredibly impressive for Disney, and continues to hold well after a month and a half in theaters. $350 million is a solid target as we get closer to the Lion King’s release.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 adds $7 million in its fourth weekend and it has $131.2 million to date. It’s not even going to reach half of the $368.3 million total the first film earned in 2016, which to be fair, had a ridiculously absurd opening weekend and total that nobody can exactly explain to this day.

Sixth place goes to Men in Black International with $6.5 million and $65 million in three weekends. The poster child for the summer of the unnecessary sequel, MiB International isn’t even doing well internationally, despite the title, having a little bit over $200 million worldwide, with reports that due to marketing, it would need to cross $300 million to show a profit.

With a rerelease in 2,025 theaters, Avengers: Endgame returns to the top ten with $5.5 million, giving it $841.3 million in its tenth weekend. More to try and top the worldwide total of Avatar than the domestic total of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the rerelease added a few minutes of extra footage to squeeze a few more dollars out of the Marvel fanboys, but the gambit does not appear to have paid off, as it still remains $26 million away from Avatar with this weekend’s overseas grosses included. I expect Disney to try again at least once more before the end of the year.

Child’s Play does the horror movie thing by falling 70% in its second weekend to $4.2 million and has $23.4 million in ten days in theaters. At least it only cost $10 million, so the Orion/United Artists release should come out ahead even as it collapses rapidly from its opening weekend.

Rocketman still holds on with $3.8 million (down 31%) in its fifth weekend and has $84.1 million. Falling short of $100 million but still headed to $90 million is a decent enough performance for what felt like a Bohemian Rhapsody redux, even though it’s more of a victim of timing than anything else. (All the future 70s/80s musical biopics are the real cash-ins, though.)

John Wick: Chapter 3 spends one last week in the top ten with another great hold, down just 22% in its seventh weekend with $3.1 million and $161.3 million to date. When your third entry makes more than the first two films combined, you’re doing something right, and the Summer of Keanu may sort of kind of have been a factor in this performance, as we wait for Chapter 4 in 2021.

The top 12 films this weekend earned $138.8 million, behind last year’s $171 million when the second weekend of Jurassic World: Falling Kingdom led with $60.9 million, and Siciario: Day of the Soldado opened with $19 million and commercial disguised as a movie Uncle Drew took in $15.2 million.

It’s a holiday weekend next week, and things get a little weird with the actual holiday falling on a Thursday, so on Tuesday the 2nd, we get Spider Man: Far From Home, as the next wave of Marvel films post-Endgame begins, as well as horror entry Midsommar on Wednesday.


Top Ten for Weekend of June 28-30, 2019
Rank
Film
Distributor
Estimated
Gross ($)
Weekly Change
Cumulative
Gross ($)
1 Toy Story 4 Walt Disney 57.9 -52% 236.9
2 Annabelle Comes Home Warner Bros. 20.3 New 31.2
3 Yesterday Universal 17.0 New 17.0
4 Aladdin Walt Disney 9.3 -29% 305.8
5 The Secret Life of Pets 2 Universal 7.0 -31% 131.2
6 Men in Black: International Sony Pictures 6.5 -39% 65.0
7 Avengers: Endgame Walt Disney 5.5 +179% 841.3
8 Child's Play Orion Pictures 4.2 -70% 23.4
9 Rocketman Paramount 3.8 -31% 84.1
10 John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Lionsgate 3.1 -22% 161.3
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

     


 
 

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