Toy Story 4 Corrals the Competition

Walt Disney Studios and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 topped the weekend box office (June 21-23) and did so with the franchise’s largest opening weekend, but it seems to have been bitten by summer’s sequel slump as it delivered well below studio and industry expectations. On top of that, United Artists Releasing’s Child’s Play finished in second place while also missing forecasted expectations while Lionsgate Films and Summit Entertainment’s Anna just barely finished the top 10.

Toy Story 4 topped the box office last weekend with $120.91 million, bellow expectations. (Photo: Disney/Pixar)

 
With $120.91 million, Toy Story 4 finished in first place, but fell way short of the studio’s $140+ million expectation. The performance was, however, the best of the franchise, topping Toy Story 3‘s $110.3 million opening back in 2010 and the fourth largest animated opening ever, which are hardly milestones you can ignore. It is also worth mentioning this is the third largest opening weekend of the year, giving Disney the top four openings of 2019.

It began 10.4 percent below Pixar’s Finding Dory, 33.8 percent behind Incredibles 2 and 4.1 percent behind the inflation-adjusted opening of 2010’s Toy Story 3, although higher in pure dollars.

In Toy Story 4‘s favor is some of the best reviews of the franchise to go along with excellent opening day audience scores. On top of that, the film has a long runaway ahead of it as the next major family film isn’t until July 19 and it is yet another Disney picture, The Lion King. It also isn’t until the mid-August release of Sony Pictures’ The Angry Birds Movie 2 that another animated feature hits theaters, giving Toy Story 4 plenty of room to breathe.

The film’s opening weekend audience that was 52 percent female and 45 percent of the crowd was aged 25 or older.

Child’s Play debuted in second place with $14.09 million. (Photo: United Artists Releasing)

 
Child’s Play finished in second place finish with $14.09 million. Heading into the weekend the, film was tracking similarly to Ma, which debuted with over $18 million just a few weeks ago, and even the film’s Thursday night previews suggested it was well on its way to a similar opening. However, it was unable to sustain the momentum and came up shy of the $16-18 million pre-weekend expectations.

The film carries a reported budget around $10 million and received average scores from opening day crowds. Child’s Play played to an audience that was 52 percent male and 61 percent over the age of 25.

Finishing in third place again last weekend was Disney’s Aladdin with $13.24 million, a dip of just 23.5 percent as it enters its fifth week with a domestic total of $288.55 million.

Sony Pictures’ Men in Black: International is already cratering after a disappointing debut the weekend, dropping -64.4 percent in its sophomore weekend with $10.70 million to finish in fourth place. That brings its North American total to $52.64 million after 10 days.

In fifth place, Universal Pictures and Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 fell 57.9 percent in the face of Toy Story 4‘s debut, with $10.27 million for the weekend. The film’s domestic total now stands at $117.56 million as it enters its third week.

Paramount Pictures’ Elton John biopicRocketman fell 40.5 percent to $5.61 million in sixth place, brining its North American total to $77.28 million. In seventh place was Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum with $6.40 million, a drop of 36.1 percent from the previous week. That brings its domestic total to $156.08 million. Finishing in eighth place was Warner Bros. Picture’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which fell 56.1 percent to $8.79 million, bringing its domestic total to $102.50 million so far.

Just barely breaking the Top 10 in ninth place was Anna with $3.60 million. The action thriller from Luc Besson received good scores opening day audiences, with was 61 percent male and 88 percent over the age of 25.

Rounding out the Top 10 in 10th place was 20th Century Fox’s Dark Phoenix, wich fell 62.3 percent to $3.53 million. That brings it North American total to $60.09 million.

Next weekend gets started on Wednesday with the release of Warner Bros.’ Annabelle Comes Home and then on Friday Universal releases Danny Boyle’s Yesterday.

The top 10 films grossed $189.90 million last weekend. That is 53.6 percent ahead of the previous weekend’s $123.61 million total. However, it is 29.5 percent behind the $269.38 million earned on the same weekend last year, when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom led with $148.02 million. Total box office year-to-date stands at $5.35 billion. That is 6.9 percent behind last year.

June 21-23, 2019

Mark Heckathorn

Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.