Would you rather have a friend or a Buddi? The choice was clear during this weekend’s box office race. Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 took a commanding lead with a $118 million opening. As noted by Deadline, that opening is getting some flack for coming in below the film’s $136 million projections for the weekend. Regardless, Toy Story 4 had the third highest weekend of the year, behind only Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel. Disney is not going to complain about that, especially since the latest Toy Story sequel is also getting stellar reviews from fans and critics alike.
As counterprogramming, the Child’s Play remake scared up $14 million in the number 2 slot. United Artists and Orion brought the killer doll, Chucky, back to the big screen for the first time since Seed of Chucky in 2004. But the bigger story is Aladdin, which finished its fifth weekend with $12.2 million. For the third weekend in a row, Aladdin has held on to the third slot while other films fell by the wayside. It’s domestic total is now $287.5 million, and it’s proven to have legs. The Lion King may outperform Aladdin later this summer, but this will easily be among the year’s biggest hits.
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At number 4, Men in Black: International dropped 64% with only $10.8 million in its second weekend. Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 was close behind at #5, with $10.3 million. Elton John’s bio-pic, Rocketman, held on to #6 with $5.6 million, while John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum came in seventh with $4.1 million. In the eighth slot, Godzilla: King of the Monsters only took in $3.7 million, but that was good enough to bring its domestic total to $102.3 million.
Dark Phoenix and Shaft closed out the top ten with $3.6 million and $3.55 million, respectively. Neither film is likely to remain in the top ten beyond this weekend. However, the news is even worse for Dark Phoenix. It dropped 1,667 theaters in its third weekend, which is 44% less than it had a week ago. Fox’s final X-Men film has hit $60 million, but even getting to $70 million will be a stretch now. Next weekend’s re-release of Endgame could potentially fill some of those theaters that Dark Phoenix is going to vacate in the coming week.
How do you feel about this weekend’s box office race? Let us know in the comment section below!
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