RankTitleDomestic Gross (Weekend)Worldwide Gross (Cume)Week #Percentage ChangeBudget1Toy Story 4$57,932,000$496,521,8092-52.1%$200M2Annabelle Comes Home$20,370,000$76,204,4591N/A$15M3Yesterday$17,000,000$24,700,0001N/A$26M4Aladdin (2019)$9,344,000$874,161,9466-29.4%$183M5The Secret Life of Pets 2$7,090,000$223,002,0004-31.0%$80MNotable Box Office StoriesToy Story 4 - Unfortunately I was away last weekend (big thanks to /u/fenixborealis for filling in last week) so I was not able to talk about the one goddamn movie this summer that actually made some money...or did it? Or it did but it's not enough? Or it is? Well let's get into it, shall we? This was the second weekend for the major "final for real, last one we promise, for serious guys, never again" in the massive franchise that started it all, and by it I mean the daily existential angst of millennials. The film opened below some of the crazier expectations but still hit a franchise high of $120.9M. And while the opening had insane tracking numbers above $150M, it's not that surprising to me that it did under that. When Toy Story 3 came out there was extreme hype for it. It had been long enough that 1 and 2 were film classics and at the time Pixar was coming off i's best run ever. Not to mention it at the time was the only Pixar franchise to have any theatrically released sequels or prequels. In that way Toy Story 3 was part of an overall trend that would dominate the studios next decade, which while it had the occasional major original hit with things like Coco and Inside Out, was very focused on sequels and prequels, producing six this decade, while making just one sequel in the previous two decades. So after a decade of constant sequels and the feeling that Toy Story 3 felt like an appropriate end to the story it's not that crazy that Toy Story 4 opened lower as people were probably very wary of potentially seeing a bad Toy Story film.Toy Story 4 (cont.) - However critics quickly assuaged fans by giving the film the usually almost 100% rating on RT. So a big question now is will this make back any lost income through strong word of mouth? As of now it's unclear. TS4 is coming out the exact same time frame as TS3 so the comparisons are perfect. TS4 dropped 52.1%, which is a little steep but not too far out from TS3's drop of -46.2%. The notable thing is of course the major July 4th holiday weekend which is usually pretty good for the box office. Of course Toy Story 4 will have stiff competition from the blockbuster family hit Midsommar (and I guess Spider-Man: Far From Home) but Toy Story 3 had major teen film competition in its day and managed to make a good chunk of change during the weekend, nearly $50M. TS4 may not get that much and may be looking at a run closer to $300M domestic than TS4's $400M, but it's a good start. Overseas though is where the film is really not doing as well as TS3. A lot has been said about how the new release of the 18 year old film Spirited Away outgrossed Toy Story 4 in China ($25M vs $13.2M) but as we've seen with Star Wars, China is very wary of franchises that have not played a lot in the country before, and no other TS films have been released theatrically there. But in films where TS3 did insanely well, namely United Kingdom where the film grossed over $100M, and it has only grossed $16M so far. So yes, Toy Story 4 is doing well, about to pass $500M worldwide which is a usual success marker for a $200M film, but still this is not shappening up to be the massive $1B easy blockbuster Disney was expecting. At least not yet. But hey you gonna sneeze at $300M domestic...okay if you're Disney you might.Annabelle Comes Home - Speaking of a franchise weary summer, Annabelle Comes Home arrived with a load of laundry and a bad attitude as it opened to #3 with $20.3M domestic. That's the worst opening in the now 6 film Conjuring franchise. That's also $15M less than the previous two Annabelles which opened above $35M. Now of course look at the budget then look at the worldwide gross. Yeah it may not be making Conjuring franchise money but that franchise is insane and has always been an outlier in the horror market for how crazy successful it is. For any horror film this is a pretty good opening and wisely WB spread it out, with the film opening a week early in overseas markets with a $45M gross so far and was released on Wednesday domestic with a total gross of $31M so far. So yeah with a $15M budget one expects this film to do just fine for WB in the long run. But the the bigger question is where this places the Conjuring films culturally. It's not a bomb but it is a crack in an otherwise flawless box office run. And with Wan probably too busy with his movies about aquatic men it seems unlikely for a main Conjuring film to come around and help revitalize the franchise with all new potential spookems spin-offs. Perhaps this just means the end for now for the spooky doll and her spooky ways but I imagine WB will find someway to rebrand her. Maybe Annabelle vs Batman?Yesterday - I don't think any recent theatrical film better represents the Netflix Effect more than Yesterday. But first let's talk numbers as the film that imagines what if Ed Sheeran could take credit for producing Beatles music opened to $17M at #3. That's actually above early tracking numbers and for a $26M budget film (which is kind of insane for how much extremely expensive Beatles music is to license) that's pretty solid. Even better, despite getting mediocre reviews from critics it seems audiences are game for Yesterday as it scored an A- on Cinemascore. This could mean a potentially great run as a counter-programming choice, especially to older groups who love the Beatles and hate all this superhero shenanigans. But I do wonder, what if this was a Netflix movie? I think about films like Bird Box and Always Be My Maybe and think about how despite these being big cultural hits that are widely discussed, would they really open above like #3? To me a film like Yesterday is a perfect example of that. I have had so many people react strongly to the trailer. Multiple people have told me their normally not movie interested family is dying to see it.Yesterday (cont.) - So why such a muted opening? Because Yesterday is that perfect Netflix movie. It's not big and bombastic and loud. It's a rom com with a fun sci-fi/fantasy twist and great music that's just kinda okay. It's the kind of film Netflix was made for, easy to make a trailer out of two months before it releases, drop it, promote the shit out of it on the site, and bang, it's the cultural hit of the week. I don't really know if that's good or bad but more it's just different. Yesterday likely went theatrical because of that initial high and the major elements like the Beatles music and Ed Sheeran being like the fourth lead. But in a time where franchises are failing left and right, it's also notable that original ideas with a buzzy premise aren't flying either. The landscape is just changing to a point it will become unrecognizable to what it was even ten years ago. Now of course you can see all about my take on an alternate what if the film Yesterday was released on Netflix with the film "All Our Yesterday" streaming now direct to Crackle.Films Reddit Wants to FollowThis is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.TitleDomestic Gross (Weekly)Domestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetWeek #Captain Marvel$96,297$426,792,827$1,128,170,790$152M17Avengers: Endgame$8,709,195$841,318,161$2,757,481,694$356M10Pokémon Detective Pikachu$616,291$142,276,773$425,476,773$150M8John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum$6,147,664$161,315,088$303,615,088$55M7Dark Phoenix$5,325,567$63,576,878$236,427,878$200M4Notable Film ClosingsN/AAs always r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at r/moviesboxoffice (which have recently been updated).My Letterboxd: https://ift.tt/2Q79jjT via /r/movies https://ift.tt/302j0l0
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