Box Office Discussion Thread

Over the last five years, 20 June releases have hit the $100 million mark at the North American box office. Of those 20, 14 were either sequels or franchise pieces. Of the 6 "originals", only one, Inside Out, grossed more than $130 million. Of the 14 franchise films, only two grossed less than $130 million. That pretty much explains why, of the 11 films scheduled to go wide this June, 6 of them are sequels and one is a remake. The four "originals" are relatively low-budget and only one, Yesterday, has even a halfway decent shot at becoming a blockbuster.

Of course, simply because a film is a sequel is no guarantee it will be a blockbuster, no matter how popular the preceding film was. Case in point--this weekend's two new openings, both of which badly underperformed.

Opening at #1 pretty much by default is The Secret Life of Pets 2, which managed to pull off an even more embarrassing opening than Godzilla: King of the Monsters had last weekend. The follow-up to the 2016 original opened to $46.7 million, or less than half of what the first film made in its first weekend three years ago. As popular as the first Pets was, it apparently didn't leave much of an impact behind. Opening halfway between Aladdin and Toy Story 4 probably didn't help, either, and of course, there is the continuing family film slump, now over 10 months and counting, which, so far, only The Grinch and Aladdin have managed to overcome.

The good news for Pets, such as it is, is that it should have OK legs and, now that school is out in most of the country, will be able to pull down solid weekday grosses. It also cost only $80 million, which means that the film should eventually reach profitability.

The same can't be said about the weekend's other opening, Dark Phoenix, aka X-Men X (or XII, if you count the Deadpools). Bad reviews and bad buzz combined to doom what is now certainly the final film in the 19-year saga that featured two separate casts, a more mixed up timeline than Back to the Future II, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in every damn movie but this one, to a series low $32.8 million. Unless word of mouth is really positive, this won't even make it to $100 million, far below the first nine films, none of which grossed under the aforementioned magic $130 million.

Abracadabraing in at third is Aladdin, which continues its successful run with another $24.7 million, to bring its total to $232.6 million, or more than Al'92. With school out, weekday grosses have remained strong, meaning that it is now likely to hit $300 million, unless stablemate Toy Story 4 completely cuts it off at the knees.

Unsurprisingly abdicating its throne is Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which tumbled to $15.5 million and a ten-day gross of $78.5 million. It should make it to $100 million, but not much father, as WB execs ponder just how much Godzilla Godzilla vs. Kong needs anyway.

Still standing yeah yeah yeah in fifth is Rocketman, which got $13.8 million worth of moviegoers to know not if it was dark outside or light, since they were sitting in a theater watching the film. That brings its ten-day total to $50.3 million. At this point, it has no shot of catching Bohemian Rhapsody, but it does stand a decent shot of passing The Birdcage to be the #2 film with a LGBT protagonist and #3 musician biopic.

In 6th, Ma had an OK hold for a horror film, earning another $7.8 million for a ten-day of $32.8 million. It should ultimately scare up somewhere between $45 and $50 million. In 7th, John Wick: Chapter 3--Parabellum officially passed the combined gross of the first two, earning $7.4 million to bring its total to $138.7 million.

Commercials are already running for Spider-Man: Homecoming that clearly assume you've already seen Avengers: Endgame. With $824.4 million in the bank, including another $4.9 million this weekend, that's probably a safe bet. Pokemon Detective Pikachu took in another $3.8 million for a pika pika total of $137.6 million. Rounding out the top ten is future cult hit Booksmart, which made $1.6 million for a total of $17.8 million.

Farther down the chart, Sundance hit Late Night opened in limited release to $246k ahead of its wide release this weekend, while another film that seems destined to go wide at some point, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, took in $235k on its first weekend.

Joining Late Night and arty zombie comedy The Dead Don't Die in theaters coast-to-coast this weekend are two films from franchises even older than X-Men (the movie series, not the entire X-Men franchise). Men in Black International, the fourth film in the 22-year-old MIB franchise, doesn't have either Will Smith's Agent J or Tommy Lee Jones's Agent K (unless one or both turn up in yet-to-be-revealed cameos), so it's subbing in Agent Thor and Agent Valkyrie, aka Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. As the title implies, the two of them set off on a globetrotting quest to protect the planet, with Emma Thompson (who is doing double duty this weekend, as she also stars in Late Night) reprising her role from MIB3 as the head of the New York office, and Liam Neeson joining the cast as the head of the London office. The first three MIBs all opened to between $51 million and $55 million, and that seems to be a good guess to where MIBI will end up this weekend.

MIB is a baby, however, compared to Shaft. The first Shaft, with Richard Roundtree as the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks, opened in 1971. Even though the film is remembered today primarily for Isaac Hayes's Oscar-winning theme song (perhaps the most positively surprising win in Academy history), it's a solid little actioner. It was quickly followed by two forgettable sequels and and even more forgettable TV series, before the franchise went dormant until 2000, when the late John Singleton directed Samuel L. Jackson in a sequel/remake, also called Shaft, with a cameo by Roundtree as Jackson's uncle.

If having two films of the four-film franchise have the same title isn't confusing enough, 19 years later, the name is now on three out of five films, as Shaft'19 arrives. with Jesse T. Usher as NuShaft, and Jackson and Roundtree returning. Shaft 2000 opened to $21.7 million, which seems like a good estimate for this one. We'll see if MIB International can win the weekend--and not just by default--next time.

Even if somehow Endgame scrapes by to become number 1, in terms of actual value made from box office it isn't as impressive. When you consider for inflation, Titanic is still king. Gone with the wind actually is number 1, but I wouldn't say it is as impressive as Titanic. Gone with the wind was literally the only choice at most theaters when it was released, it had no real competition to compete with. By the time Titanic came out hollywood was firmly a thing and a huge industry that was pumping out multiple movies a week. ET also comes in pretty high on the inflation list, but I don't know how many times that was re-released in theaters, I think Titanic only got like two re-releases for a short time?

After two straight weekends where debuting sequels to hit movies had dramatically underperfomed, Hollywood had adjusted their expectations down for this week's new crop of retreads. It's doubtful, however, that they were expecting this week's newcomers to make the last two weeks look spectacular by comparison.

Somehow leading the charge is Men in Black International, which definitively proved that the audiences for the first three were there to see Will Smith, and do not consider Thor to be an acceptable substitute. The Chris Hemsworth-led follow-up opened to $30 million, over $20 million off the openings of the first three, the worst numbers for the #1 film since the considerably less hyped The Curse of La Llorona in April, and an opening that managed to be worse than the opening for Dark Phoenix last weekend. Unless this ended up developing strong legs due to word of mouth, expect Sony executives to try to neuralize themselves to forget the existence of this film (either that, or beg Smith to come back for MVB).

The Secret Life of Pets 2 held up OK for second, taking in $24.4 million for a 10-day total of $92.7 million. If Toy Story 4 doesn't hurt it too badly this weekend, Pets 2 has an outside shot at $150 million, though it seems more likly to finish somewhere around $130-140 million.

Aladdin, which does star Will Smith, continues to perform strongly, taking in another $17.3 million for a total of $264 million. It has a good chance of passing $300 million by 4th of July weekend.

Rocketman also continues to perform well, earning $9.4 million for a total of $66.8 million. That said, it could be a struggle to get to $100 million, especially with only one more weekend before Yesterday arrives as direct competition.

Dark Phoenix predictably collapsed, scraping up only $9.4 million for a ten-day total of $52.1 million. At this point, Phoenix will be lucky to top $75 million.

Opening dismally in 6th is Shaft, aka Shaft 5: Now With Even More Shaft. The new Shaft opens far below the opening of 2000's Shaft, aka Shaft 4: A New, Not-Much-Younger Shaft, which took in $21.7 million back in the day. The new one only earned $8.9 million, making the odds of one day getting Shaft, aka Shaft 6, that much longer.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters continues to creep toward $100 million, taking in $8.8 million for a total of $94.4 million. John Wick: Chapter 3--Parabellum continues to creep toward $150 million, taking in $6.4 million for a total of $148.9 million.

Opening wide in 9th is Late Night, which brought in $5.3 million in its first wide weekend. It's 10 day stands at $5.6 million.

Avengers: Endgame is on the verge of dropping out of the Top 10 after just 8 weeks, or one fewer week than the other Avengers movies, which all dropped out after 9. Then again, Avengers: Endgame is departing the Top 10 with $830.7 million, so very few are all that worried that Endgame burned out faster than the others in the series.

Opening in 12th, after Ma, is The Dead Don't Die, a deadpan zombie comedy from Jim Jarmusch. This is the director's widest-ever release, and easily his biggest opening, at $2.5 million, which is more than his last four films made in their entire runs. Still, even with Bill Murray (who knows a thing or two about comedies involving zombies and other paranormal creatures), the mediocre reviews mean it probably won't top the $13.7 million Jarmusch's biggest hit, 2005's Broken Flowers, also starring Murray, earned.

The next week brings no less than three movies about sentient playthings, two of them naughty, one of them nice. The nice one is, of course, Toy Story 4, which is widely expected to pull the box office out of its doldrums with a huge opening. How huge? Expect Incredibles 2's record as the top animation opening to fall. Expected to finish way, way, way back is the first naughty film, a remake of 1988's Child's Play, that brings killer doll Chucky to the smarttoy era, with Mark Hamill taking over for Brad Dourif as Chucky's voice. The series was never a huge grosser, with none of the titles making over $35 million, but they played well on video. This one will likely have the highest opening of the franchise, but given that the current highest is the $11.8 million Bride of Chucky earned back in 1998, that's not that an impressive a feat. Meanwhile, audiences will have to wait until next Wednesday to see the other living doll movie, Annabelle Comes Home. For people who just can't wait until then to see a female kill lots of people, they can check out Luc Besson's Anna, which is getting dumped this weekend. Will Toy Story 4 be able to open to $200 million? We'll find out this weekend.

It might work internationally, where less than $50 million separate Avengers from Avatar. Domestically, however, Endgame is still over $100 million behind Force Awakens. There's no way the few minutes of new footage is going to bring anywhere close to enough money to close that gap.

Worldwide Box Office for Jun 21-23

1: Toy Story 4, $240,908,065, $240,908,065 (NEW)
2: Aladdin (2019), $46,144,015, $813,286,727 (=, -29%)
3: Men in Black: International, $40,901,557, $182,041,211 (-2, -61%)
4: Spirited Away, $28,773,000, $300,000,000* (NR, exponential)
5: The Secret Life of Pets 2, $21,070,955, $194,664,490 (-1, -36%)

*The issue with the box office for Spirited Away is trying to pair already iffy current Chinese theatre grosses with international grosses from all across the world from like twenty years ago and then converted into USD and look it says $300m on Wikipedia okay?

All your bases are belonging to Disney, as Toy Story 4 romps into the box office. This has been the subject of some discussion as strong presales inflated projections. Combined with strong reviews, the very strong box offices of The Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory and a general resignation to Disney superiority, people projected Toy Story 4 as coming in quite a bit higher than it did. This doesn't change that this is a very strong opening box office for Toy Story. Also, The Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory were both the second instalment of a movie that happened in early 2000s and people really liked and were excited to see them again for the first time in almost 20 years. Toy Story 4 is the fourth installment of some toys that people are pretty familiar with by now. And, as I should say again, Toy Story 4 still made a shit ton of money. And if it holds like you expect a Pixar movie to hold it's going to make a shit ton more.

Last week I said Toy Story 4 was going to clean out Aladdin (2019) and I was very wrong. This movie is holding like crazy to be the undisputed MVP of a month that has some of Film Twitter cackling and saying the franchise film is dead. Thank God we have a win for established intellectual properties instead of original movies. Japan, also notable for their love of Frozen, fucking loves this movie. It's also racking up wins in Korea, the UK, and Germany. Will Smith needed a win, and the nice young actors and actresses also in this movie stand to get a solid career boost as well.

Men in Black: International followed a disappointing opening with a disappointing hold. Not much to say there. Sorry Tessa Thompson. Spirited Away opened for the first time in China. It won the weekend easily, perhaps weakening Toy Story 4's international box office in the process. I haven't seen this movie but it seems very popular. The Secret Life of Pets 2 held strongly buoyed by new markets. It'll keep doing solid business.

In other news, Dark Phoenix and Godzilla: King of the Monsters slowed their descent somewhat but are still not doing great. Child's Play (2019) opened in America to a solid amount for its standard horror budget. Anna (2019) opened in America to an abysmal amount for any budget, as expected for a movie that the studio is just trying to bury as quickly as possible while still fulfilling their contractual obligations. Rocketman is chugging along strong, and my mum really liked it. And Avengers: Endgame continues to chip away with an expansion on the horizon.

1: Avatar, $2,787,965,087
2: Avengers: Endgame, $2,750,760,348, (-$37,204,739)

Next week we have a few interesting stories. Yesterday comes out, a movie that supposes that if you were the only person on Earth who remembered Beatles songs you would instantly become an international superstar. Sadly if I were the only person on Earth who remembered NWA songs I don't think I'd become a famous rapper. Annabelle Comes Home is out as well, apparently there are three of these movies now and they are a part of the Conjuring film universe. The things you learn. We also have Spider-Man: Far From Home releasing in China and Japan, and an expansion of Avengers: Endgame which was announced then haven't had any publicity for. Look, just put the Endgame tickets in front of me Disney, I will give you money for them I just need to know where and when.

2019 Worldwide Box Office*

1: Avengers: Endgame (=) / $2,750,760,348
2: Captain Marvel (=) / $1,128,128,567
3: Aladdin (2019) (=) / $813,286,727
4: The Wandering Earth (=) / $692,163,684
5: How to Train Your Dragon 3 (=) / $519,586,035
6: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (=) / $425,130,694
7: Alita: Battle Angel (=) / $404,852,543
8: Shazam! (=) / $363,254,167
9: Dumbo (2019) (=) / $345,052,982
10: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (=) / $338,301,438

*So I use three sources for this, and the numbers are always a bit different going between them. But I decided to tidy it up to the two sources that backed each other up the most. The only real consequence of this is that Godzilla: King of the Monsters loses a bit of money in translation and takes another weak to move past Dumbo (2019).

Everyone holds steady for now. But Toy Story 4 is on the way up and it's going to take a scalp sooner or later. Looking at you, Dumbo (2019).

It seems like the Marvel people may have been being honest when they said the Endgame expansion wasn't meant to get Endgame over Avatar. It's a small release that seemingly is just for this weekend, and then they're taking Endgame out of theatres to make way for Spider-Man: Far from Home. It seems like it's not to beat Avatar, it's to help push Far From Home over the billion dollar mark as well.

Worldwide Box Office for Jun 28-30

1: Toy Story 4, $140,300,331, $501,677,652 (=, -42%)
2: Spider-Man: Far From Home, $111,000,000, $111,000,000 (NEW)
3: Annabelle Comes Home, $65,269,723, $65,269,723 (NEW)
4: Aladdin (2019), $34,514,122, $876,797,981 (-2, -25%)
5: Yesterday, $24,710,050, $24,710,050 (NEW)

Toy Story 4 keeps bringing in the money, holding strong in domestic and overseas markets. The drop is a little more than you'd expect for a Pixar movie, which means it's very strong for any movie that isn't Pixar. With big markets like Japan and Germany still to open in, Toy Story 4 is looking like one of this year's contenders for the billion dollar club.

Spider-Man: Far From Home rocked it in China, Japan, and Hong Kong. There's an interesting story in China - a big movie was opening in China this weekend that would have provided competition to Far From Home, a movie called Better Days. However, it got caught up in the political system, with apparently the education authorities vetoing it for its depiction of sexual assault and bullying. Another war epic called The Eight Hundred was taken off the upcoming July 5 weekend because it showed a heroic feat performed by the wrong side - a horde of Japanese savages was held out by a brave contingent of soldiers from the Chinese Nationalists, not the Communist Party. A movie named The Great Wish was changed to The Little Wish because it's felt that 'great' should only be used to describe leader, party, and country.

This is especially interesting because July is traditionally the month China keeps clear from Hollywood to promote their local stuff. But this year, they're clearing the field for Spider-Man: Far From Home and The Lion King to romp through. A movie named The White Storm 2 has moved up a couple of weeks (I think, it's easier to follow Chinese box office if you read Chinese) to take advantage of the spot left by The Eight Hundred and it will probably take a lower spot on the top 5, but it won't do Far From Home business. China's loss is Hollywood's gain, it seems.

Annabelle Comes Home is in the weird position where it's making a ton of money in regards to its budget, because horror movies are very cheap to make, but the studio were probably expecting more. As far as I can follow, they're doing to The Conjuring-verse what happened to the Lego Movie franchise - keep watering it down with sidequels and spinoffs until nobody is interested in the mainline series anymore. Unless that's not what's happening. I cannot stress this enough, I still have no idea what a Conjuring is or who the fans of this franchise are.

Aladdin (2019) has no business being in the top 5 for long, but it is. It's still making a shit ton of money, it's still huge in Japan, and it's sneakily looking at crossing the billion dollar mark itself. It'll get in the general area, especially if it keeps holding in Japan like this. Yesterday had a solid opening, even if you take into account the heavy advertising budget. With an audience reporting lots of chicks and lots of old people, Yesterday is in position to run long.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 opened in some new markets and took home another $20m, on a $80m budget they've probably broken even or ar about to. Men in Black: International is not an international success, buuuuuuurn. That had a higher budget and is in a slog to get to the projected breakeven point of $300m. Spirited Away is now once again the highest grossing anime film, even if there is a struggle to agree on an exact number for it. Avengers: Endgame expanded a bit to, depending on who you ask, either chase Avatar (unsuccessful) or promote Far From Home (up in the air). It pulled in $8.5m which nobody is complaining about of course, but it's not going to bridge the gap at this point.

1: Avatar, $2,787,965,087
2: Avengers: Endgame, $2,764,881,856 (-$23,083,231)

It's such an insignificant number, is it even worth arguing about at this point? If you ask people on Twitter or Reddit, they will tell you YES YES IT FUCKING IS WORTH ARGUING ABOUT THIS 1% OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AVATAR AND ENDGAME IS EITHER EVERYTHING I STAND FOR OR EVERYTHING I LIVE TO DESTROY. Disney, I'm telling you, competing re-releases. You will make so much more money that you don't need.

Next week we have Spider-Man: Far From Home opening wide in North America and a whole bunch of others places. The White Storm 2: Drug Lords opens in China and will pull in a decent sum, The Secret Life of Pets 2 opens in China as well. Midsommar, the weird horror movie that is divisive everywhere including the shoutbox is open in America as well.

2019 Worldwide Box Office

1: Avengers: Endgame (=) / $2,764,881,856
2: Captain Marvel (=) / $1,128,248,013
3: Aladdin (2019) (=) / $876,797,981
4: The Wandering Earth (=) / $692,163,684
5: How to Train Your Dragon 3 (=) / $519,758,180
6: Toy Story 4 (NEW) / $501,677,652
7: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (-1) / $427,428,756
8: Alita: Battle Angel (-1) / $404,852,543
9: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (+1) / $377,666,722
10: Shazam! (-2) / $364,094,424

International box office totals are a funny thing. Last week, the numbers (and website The Numbers) said Godzilla was on $338m worldwide. And according to the sources, Godzilla made a measly $5m this weekend. So why is the number almost $40m higher? Oh well, these numbers are newer and newer is always better. Until next week when it comes in that it's dropped some inexplicable amount.

Regardless, Toy Story 4 starts its march up the charts and Dumbo (2019) flies off to Disney Plus. I made a mistake earlier though, I said Disney was pitching a shut out with Endgame, Captain Marvel, Aladdin, Toy Story, Spider-Man, and The Lion King. However, Spider-Man: Far From Home is a Sony property. Disney gets a slice of the pie as a producing company and on merch, but the box office records belong to Sony. So don't worry guys, there is competition at the box office. Disney vs The People Disney Make Movies For Because Of Some Bad Deals Marvel Made In The 90s.

I reckon Hobbs and Shaw is in there with a shot - The Rock and Jason Statham fighting helicopters is an easy sell and translates well internationally.

While I think Jumanji has the best chance of cracking the years Top 8, I think there are five other movies that have a chance as well: Hobbs & Shaw, It 2, Joker, Gemini Man, and Spies in Disguise. These are the only non-Disney titles that I think have a legitimate chance of hitting $200 million domestic.

Fireworks went off at the box office last weekend, as America celebrated its birthday by seeing a film mostly taking place in Europe. Spider-Man: Far From Home swung into theaters, making $92.6 million over the weekend. But that only tells half the story, literally, as the film opened on Tuesday and racked up weekday numbers rarely seen outside of Christmas week. It entered the weekend with $92.5 million already banked from its first three days, meaning it earned an outstanding $185.1 million by the end of its first six days.

It's hard to compare this with the opening of Spider-Man: Homecoming. That film skipped the holiday week entirely, opening on Friday, July 7, to $117 million that first weekend. Even though Far From Home's weekend was lower, it feels like its opening is more impressive, as the Tuesday opening undoubtedly meant that many moviegoers who would have seen the film on Friday or Saturday saw it on Tuesday or Wednesday instead. At the very least, I expect Far From Home to top Homecoming's $334.2 million final gross. Depending on legs, it might even challenge 2002's Spider-Man as the highest-grossing Spidey movie of all time.

After two weeks on top, Toy Story 4 came in second with $33.9 million, bringing its gross to $306.1 million. That keeps it ahead of where Toy Story 3 was at this point in its run. The final gross should still be over $400 million.

Audiences ignored critic's words of wisdom and didn't let Yesterday be, as the comedy earned another $10.1 million. This brings its 10-day total to a solid $36.2 million after ten days. At this point, the film, with a little help from its fans, should earn at least $60 million, and even has a shot at saying hello, hello to $100 million.

For a horror movie, Annabelle Comes Home held up decently, as it scared up $9.5 million for a twelve-day total of $49.8 million. That's still more than $10 million below where the first two Annabelle films were at the end of their second weekend, as this looks likely to be the lowest-grossing film in the Conjuring series.

Aladdin continues to demonstrate the strongest legs of the summer season, as the mostly live-action remake (as opposed the upcoming Lion King) conjured up another $7.5 million for a total of $320.7 million. At this point, it will almost certainly pass Alice in Wonderland to be the third-biggest of Disney's live-actionish remakes in the coming weeks.

Opening in sixth is horror comedy Midsommar, which took in $6.6 million over the weekend and $10.9 million since its opening last Wednesday. Given the buzz and word of mouth, those numbers have to be at least a little disappointing to distributor A24, which was undoubtedly hoping that the 5-day could at least replicate last year's opening of Hereditary. Midsommar is low-budgeted enough that it will likely still turn a nice profit, and had a chance of finishing above $30 million.

Rounding out the top 10, The Secret Life of Pets 2 continues to chug along, taking in $4.7 million for a total of $140.7 million. Men in Black International made $3.8 million to bring its total to $72.1 million. Avengers: Endgame spent its tenth week in the top 10, surpassing the runs of the first three, all of whom spent 9 weeks there. It made $3.1 million for a total of $847.9 million. Rocketman is burning out its fuse with $2.6 million, for a total of $89 million.

How and why Hollywood schedules movies is a mystery. For whatever reason, June had 10 wide releases, and there are 18 wide releases set for August, but July has only 6 new movies going wide all month. Two of them opened last week, and two more open this weekend, the last weekend where multiple movies are set to go wide until August 9. These two new entries are highly unlikely to challenge Spider-Man for first, and probably not even to challenge Toy Story for second. Action buddy movie Stuber is the higher profile of the two, as odd couple paring Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani play a cop and an Uber driver who team up to track down the killers of Bautista's partner. Meanwhile, Crawl stars Berry Pepper and Kaya Scodelario as a father and daughter trapped in their flooding Florida house during a hurricane, only to discover that hungry alligators have also taken up residence. Since it's unlikely that either of the two leads will get chomped before the climax, expect several would-be rescuers to be gator bait in the meantime (and bloody gator bait at that, as this is directed by Alexandre Aja, who helmed the super-gory Piranha remake a few years back). We'll see if either of these two films gets lyfted to Spidey's level next weekend.

Worldwide Box Office for July 12-14

1: Spider-Man: Far From Home, $145,353,359, $847,082,664 (=, -56%)
2: Toy Story 4, $69,045,639, $773,918,158 (=, -10%)
3: The Lion King (2019), $54,700,000, $54,700,000 (NEW)
4: The White Storm 2: Drug Lords, $33,647,000, $138,313,326 (-1, -44%)
5: Annabelle Comes Home, $23,722,042, $174,232,476 (-1, -21%)

Spider-Man: Far From Home remains on top, swinging towards one billion. By now it's come in as the most successful Spider-Man movie, and definitely the only thing Sony has to talk about this year. Fun fact, up until Spider-Man saved the day, the biggest opening Sony had for 2019 was... Men in Black: International. And the best reviewed movie was A Dog's Way Home (62% RT, 50 MC). They were having a rough year until Disney made them a billion dollar movie.

Toy Story 4 opened in some new territories and brought in a nice chunk of change, with the nest debut ever for a Disney animated movie in Japan and the best debut for an animated movie ever in Hong Kong. Latin America also still really loves Toy Story. With strong momentum across the board and still to open in Germany, Toy Story 4 is also looking at a billion dollars.

Speaking of movies looking at a billion dollars, The Lion King (2019) opened in China before expanding wide across the globe this weekend. Early signs look good, even with unexpected competition in China. It's going to be in first next week and probably erupt into the top ten list. Looks like a similar situation to Aladdin - some backdraft online, chilly critical reception, but a hit with the general audience.

The White Storm 2: Drug Lords continues to pull in solid money. It was touch and go, but local movies are still putting up a fight against Disney powerhouses in China. Annabelle Comes Home opened in some new markets and held strongly in overseas markets. I think it is now doing good for a Conjuring movie. Maybe. *shrugs*

In other movies, Aladdin (2019) and The Secret Life of Pets 2 keep bubbling under. Crawl opens at a respectable $16m off some surprising critical buzz (shame they tried to hide the movie from critics thinking they'd hate it), Stuber opens at a less respectable $11m off no critical buzz whatsoever. Yesterday continues existing, and Avengers: Endgame is getting really really close. Marvel is turning the world upside down to try and shake out some spare change from the couch cushions.

1: Avatar, $2,787,965,087
2: Avengers: Endgame, $2,781,212,415 (-$6,752,672)

Next week, The Lion King (2019) expands worldwide. And the lions also get some surprising competition in China as local family comedy Looking Up opens.

2019 Worldwide Box Office

1: Avengers: Endgame (=) / $2,781,212,415
2: Captain Marvel (=) / $1,128,274,792
3: Aladdin (2019) (=) / $961,539,269
4: Spider-Man: Far From Home (+3) / $847,082,664
5: Toy Story 4 (=) / $773,918,158
6: The Wandering Earth (-2) / $699,760,773
7: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (=) / $519,758,180
8: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (=) / $429,395,333
9: Alita: Battle Angel (=) / $404,852,543
10: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (=) / $383,991,018

Like Shazam and Dumbo before him, Godzilla is about to become another casualty of the push for prime content to put on Disney+. The only question is whether he holds out another week. Spider-Man continues his swing up the charts and The Wandering Earth comes tumbling out of the top 5.

Worldwide Box Office for Jul 19-21

1: The Lion King (2019), $461,170,759, $564,663,379 (+2, +743%)
2: Spider-Man: Far From Home, $58,402,431, $975,021,785 (-1, -60%)
3: Toy Story 4, $41,351,086, $863,241,772 (-1, 40%)
4: Looking Up, $37,620,000, $62,360,000 (NR, +605%)
5: The White Storm 2: Drug Lords, $15,686,000, $138,313,326 (-1, -53%)

Middling reviews? Franchise fatigue? Everyone dunking on the movie on Twitter? Cutting down the best Disney villain song of all time? If you thought that was going to slow down The Lion King (2019) you haven't been paying attention. (You could argue the villain song thing, but you would be wrong). It's running ahead of Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Aladdin (2019) and seems almost a lock to hit a billion dollars. It's hard to imagine what could stop it at this point. It hasn't even opened in every major international market yet.

Showing that the Mouse isn't the only game in Hollywood, Spider-Man: Far From Home proudly stands as a beacon of resistance against Disney distribution dominance. Ignore the production credit Disney has on the movie. It's officially the top Spider-Man movie of all time, it's also pretty much a lock to hit a billion dollars. Fun fact - at $975m, it is currently tied with the franchise average of the MCU.

Stop me if you've heard this before - Disney or Disney-affiliated property Toy Story 4 is making a staggering amount of money and is practically a lock to make a billion dollars. Toy Story 4 is holding its own despite stablemate The Lion King (2019) sweeping the market.

Capping off the top five we have entries making ground in the Chinese market - Looking Up debuted to an impressive amoung and defeated The Lion King (2019) in China, and The White Storm 2: Drug Lords keeps chalking up a nice chunk of change. Aladdin (2019) is still holding on strong at $13m just below the top 5 and is going to pass a billion dollars this week or next. Annabelle Comes Home, Yesterday, Crawl, and The Secret Life of Pets 2 all made between $8m-$10m. There is a movie in Japan called Weathering With You that might have made $15m, but it turns out Japan is really slow with box office data. But there's something else big that needs to be mentioned again.

1: Avengers: Endgame, $2,790,849,263
2: Avatar, $2,789,679,794 (-$1,169,469)



Avengers: Endgame triumphs! How this happened is funny. In what I'm sure was a total coincidence, Disney was able to confirm that Avengers: Endgame was going to pass Avatar just as their Comic-Con panel started. Funny how things work out, huh? It seems like a lot went into that - they had their analysts go into the lab and shake out every last unreported dollar of box office Avatar has, and discovered an extra million or two that hadn't been reported. And then international numbers for Avengers: Endgame were static for a teeny bit as Disney had to verify their authenticity. Can't argue with the end result though, Kevin Feige announcing to a crowd of rabid fans that Avengers: Endgame is the #1 grossing movie of all-time (if you don't adjust for inflation).

Next week Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is debuting, which will be interesting. If you follow film Twitter, which I do not recommend, discourse is hot right now. The Lion King is facing increasing competition in China as Nezha opens wide on Friday as well.

2019 Worldwide Box Office

1: Avengers: Endgame (=) / Walt Disney, $2,790,849,263
2: Captain Marvel (=) / Walt Disney, $1,128,274,794
3: Aladdin (2019) (=) / Walt Disney, $989,689,902
4: Spider-Man: Far From Home (=) / Sony Pictures, $975,021,785
5: Toy Story 4 (=) / Walt Disney, $863,241,772
6: The Wandering Earth (=) / China Film Group Corporation, $699,760,773
7: The Lion King (2019) (NEW) / Walt Disney, $564,663,379
8: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (-1) / Universal, $519,758,180
9: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (-1) / Warner Bros, $429,663,718
10: Alita: Battle Angel (-1) / 20th Century Fox, $404,852,543

Godzilla: King of the Monsters has been eliminated from the top 10 by scrappy underdog The Lion King (2019)! They weren't here for a long time, nor were they here for a good time. Alita: Battle Angel is on the hotseat now. The Disney onslaught is over for now, we don't have another Disney film coming until October. But Hobbs and Shaw is eyeing a spot in the top 10.

Worldwide Box Office for Jul 26-28

1: The Lion King (2019), $219,421,553, $968,538,607 (=, -52%)
2: Nezha, $83,118,000, $103,300,000 (NR, exponential)
3: Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood, $41,082,018, $41,082,018 (NEW)
4: Spider-Man: Far From Home, $33,452,143, $1,037,107,413 (-2, -43%)
5: Toy Story 4, $29,853,633, $919,105,081 (-2, -28%)

The Lion King (2019) remains on top, dropping maybe more than you'd expect for a family movie but about in line with a movie that opened as huge as it did. It has already passed a billion dollars as of this write up. It's getting smacked around in China, but making bank just about everywhere else (and is yet to open in Japan and Italy). So, pretty good there.

Nezha opened very large, quickly becoming the highest ever weekend for an animated movie in China. It's based on a character in Chinese mythology and... that's about as much as I can get from Western publications. If Gavin Feng really has quit tweeting about Chinese box office then anything about China in these write-ups will become even less informative. I dunno, movie made a lot of money. People like it. Movie did good.

Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino's raised middle finger to search engine optimisation, opened well in America to become hiss highest opening movie ever. It's been a franchise-heavy summer and there's clearly an appetite for something different. So they've decided to take a risk on unknown indie filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Good work showing up guys, if this one disappoints the world may never talk about a Quentin Tarantino movie again. He really needs this. Nonetheless, people enjoy what the man is selling (although the movie proved divisive with a B CinemaScore) and he still has the rest of the world to release in, so it's likely this will be making steady money for weeks to come.

Spider-Man: Far From Home passed a billion dollars and is on track to be Sony's biggest worldwide release ever (chasing down Skyfall at $1.109b). The lesson is if you can get Disney to make and promote a movie for you, do that. It is also chasing down Captain Marvel to lock itself in as the second biggest superhero movie this year. Between Chadwick Boseman, Brie Larson, and Tom Holland, the MCU has plenty of box office hits to keep things going while they build up the next Avengers.

Toy Story 4 is approaching a billion dollars. You don't want to get stuck with Dumbo (2019) and Penguins (Disneynature documentary) as being the Disney movies that didn't make a billion dollars this year. Still holding well, still strong in Latin America, still has some markets left to open in. This week it's opening in... Estonia and Latvia. Hey, maybe the Latvians love Toy Story, who knows.

Looking Up led the rest, the second local movie stampeding over The Lion King (2019) in China with $18m. Aladdin (2019) is still making solid overseas money at $10m, especially in Japan and Korea. The Secret Life of Pets 2 opened in Japan and made another $8m overall, that's solidly fallen in 'disappointing but still profitable'. Crawl held surprisingly well at $7.4m, the distributors have to be wondering if they left money on the table by not going bigger with the opening and hiding it from critics. People really like this movie, they could have built up some buzz. And Yesterday is also still there, $6.6m is nothing to sneeze at.

Next week we have Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. It looks big, dumb, and loud. I am so there. The Bravest is expanding wide in China as well and looks to do well. The Nightingale opens very limited in America, which isn't relevant box office but if anyone can get out to see it I'm very interested.

2019 Worldwide Box Office

1: Avengers: Endgame (=) / Walt Disney, $2,793,274,168
2: Captain Marvel (=) / Walt Disney, $1,128,274,794
3: Spider-Man: Far From Home (+1) / Sony Pictures, $1,037,107,413
4: Aladdin (2019) (-1) / Walt Disney, $1,010,714,512
5: The Lion King (2019) (+2) / Walt Disney, $968,538,607
6: Toy Story 4 (-1) / Walt Disney, $919,105,081
7: The Wandering Earth (-1) / China Film Group Corporation, $699,760,773
8: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (=) / Universal, $519,758,180
9: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (=) / Warner Bros, $430,841,467
10: Alita: Battle Angel (=) / 20th Century Fox, $404,852,543

Spider-Man: Far From Home and The Lion King (2019) keep moving up. Spider-Man probably peaks at 3 or 4; even if they get past Captain Marvel, The Lion King is going to jump over them soon enough. If anyone is concerned how the eight digit movies seem to be dominated by one company in particular, then this graph probably won't help.



This is before Lion King and Toy Story 4 hits a billion as well. It's good to be the Mouse.

Now that most of the films of the winter/spring have finished their runs (and the ones that haven't are winding down), this would be a good time to look back and see how the various wide releases of January, February, March, and April did, as well as limited releases that did good business for limited releases.

1. Avengers: Endgame--$857.5 million. It's possible that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might do similar business this Christmas. If it doesn't, expect this to remain the second-highest grossing film domestically for a long, long time.

2. Captain Marvel--$426.8 million. Exactly why did it take 21 Marvel movies before we got a movie led by a female?

3. Us--$175 million. It most likely won't be an Oscar darling like Get Out was, but director Jordan Peele deftly avoided the sophomore slump.

4. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World--$160.8 million. Oddly, the final movie in the trilogy had the biggest opening but will finish with the lowest grosses of the franchise.

5. Shazam!--$140.4 million. Given the good reviews and good will generated by Aquaman, this gross is a bit of a disappointment. Maybe opening halfway between Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame wasn't the wisest move.

6. Dumbo--$114.8 million. Not every animated title that Disney remakes in live-action(ish) becomes a blockbuster, a concern as the studio burns through its early 90s hits.

7. Glass--$111 million. This film was really cheap to make, so it will turn a handsome profit, but you know everyone involved was expecting a much higher final total.

8. The Upside--$108.3 million. This looked like a failed Oscar bait January dump. Instead, it turned out to be a big sleeper hit.

9. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part--$105.8 million. Maybe waiting 5 years to do a proper sequel was a mistake. Diluting the Lego name with stuff like The Lego Ninjago Movie definitely was.

10. Alita: Battle Angel--$85.7 million. After getting pushed first out of summer and then out of the holidays to land in February, it then proved that those postponements were a good idea.

11. Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral--$73.3 million. If this is really and truly the final Madea, she's going out in fine style, with the second-highest gross of the entire franchise.

12. Escape Room--$57 million. This got much better reviews than most low-budget horror movies released the first weekend of the year usually get, and ended up getting much better grosses as well.

13. The Curse of La Llorona--$54.7 million. Opening only a week before Endgame probably limited its box office some, but it still did about as much business as anyone could reasonably expect.

14. Pet Sematary--$54.7 million. This isn't a flop by any means, but you knew the producers were expecting it to do considerably better than the two horror titles immediately above.

15. What Men Want--$54.6 million. It did OK business in the Valentine's Day corridor, but apparently neither men nor women wanted to see this one after the holiday.

16. Isn't It Romantic--$48.8 million. Another Valentine's Day movie that died right after the holiday, this one spoofs a genre that is mostly found on Netflix these days.

17. Five Feet Apart--$45.7 million. The latest The Fault in Our Stars wannabe, this actually did much better business than the other sick kids in love ripoffs.

18. Wonder Park--$45.2 million. Given the behind-the-scenes turmoil and the tepid reviews, the studio seemed to write off this animated production well before it opened.

19. A Dog's Way Home--$42 million. This non-sequel to A Dog's Purpose opened around the same time that unexpected hit opened two years ago, and did about the business most people thought that film would do.

20. Breakthrough--$40.7 million. This did much better than the other Christian films of the spring, but putting well-known secular actors in won't guarantee grosses like Heaven is For Real or I Can Only Imagine.

21. Little--$40.7 million. 31 years ago, summer audiences loved seeing Tom Hanks play a 12-year-old. This year, spring audiences were pretty indifferent on seeing the pre-teen girl from Black-ish play a 40-year-old.

22. Cold Pursuit--$31.1 million. The latest of Liam Neeson's old man of action movies he's been churning out since Taken, and made about the same amount most of these films make these days.

23. Dragon Ball Super: Broly--$30.7 million. Instead of going the Fathom route and screening this feature film episode of the long-running anime series, Funmation decided to give it a regular release. The result is the highest-grossing non-Pokemon anime title ever in North America.

24. Happy Death Day 2U--$28.1 million. What's more repetitive than watching someone get murdered over and over and over? Watching them get murdered over and over and over again in the sequel.

25. Fighting With My Family--$23 million. Even relentless promotion of Dwayne Johnson's extended cameo couldn't get non-wrestling fans in to see this biopic of pro wrestler Paige.

26. Hellboy--$21.9 million. Why Guillermo del Toro was denied the chance to make an R-rated Hellboy movie but the director of Doomsday wasn't is one of life's great mysteries.

27. Unplanned--$19 million. Despite its R rating, enough Christians turned out to see this anti-abortion drama that it ended up being a minor hit.

28. The Kid Who Would Be King--$16.8 million. Only a year and a half after the failure of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword comes yet another King Arthur story. Setting it in the modern day among elementary school kids didn't make it any more of a hit.

29. Missing Link--$16.7 million. Laika is 5-for-5 on getting its films nominated for the Animated Feature Oscar. This year, they probably won't go to 6-for-6.

30. Miss Bala--$15 million. There's nothing wrong with remaking a hit Spanish language film in English--unless, of course, your target audience is the same Spanish-speaking audience that already saw the original.

31. The Prodigy--$14.9 million. Horror movies with evil kids are a dime a dozen. No reason to spend money to see the latest variation.

32. After--$12.1 million. This adaption of One Direction fanfic (yes, seriously) seemed made for 12-year-old girls to watch at sleepovers.

33. Greta--$10.5 million. Neil Jordan doesn't direct many movies these days, so it's a shame that his first film in six years got bad reviews and worse box office.

34. The Best of Enemies--$10.2 million. Coming so soon after Green Book, audiences didn't need another film where a black person teaches a racist white man that racism is wrong.

35. Hotel Mumbai--$9.7 million. Audiences rarely embrace movies about recent tragedies. This dramatization of simultaneous terrorist attacks on numerous public places in Mumbai in 2008 continues that trend.

36. No Manches Frida 2--$9.3 million. This sequel to the popular Mexican comedy from a couple of years ago is currently the highest-grossing foreign language film of the year.

37. Apollo 11--$9 million. Just in time for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing is this hit documentary.

38. Serenity--$8.6 million. Amazingly, this goofy thriller is not the lowest-grossing Matthew McConaughey film of the spring.

39. Penguins--$7.7 million. Most of Disney's nature documentaries do better than this, but then again, there are few animals that have had more documentaries devoted to them than penguins.

40. Run the Race--$6.4 million. Not even a Tim Tebow cameo could get many people interested in this Christian sports drama.

41. Captive State--$6 million. Despite an intriguing cast including John Goodman and Vera Farmiga, this alien invasion thriller barely made a blip.

42. The Wandering Earth--$5.9 million. This Chinese sci-fi epic was a huge hit back home and did OK business here.

43. Gloria Bell--$5.6 million. Julianne Moore's turn as a divorcee learning to live life again got great reviews but didn't really break out.

44. Gully Boy--$5.6 million. This Indian rap musical was a solid hit among its target audience in North America.

45. The Mustang--$5 million. This drama about a prisoner training a horse was a hit at Sundance and did well on the art house circuit.

46. Uri: The Surgical Strike--$4.2 million. Another film about a recent Indian terrorist attack, this one also found its target audience.

47. Replicas--$4 million. Sure, we all love Keanu Reeves now, but we didn't back in January, when this sci-fi flick came and went.

48. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2019--$3.5 million. This annual compilation of the year's nominated shorts always attracts a decent crowd of Oscar completists.

49. BTS World Tour: Love Yourself in Seoul--$3.5 million. The concert films of the Korean boy band do such good business via Fathom it's surprising no one has tried to give one of these films a traditional release.

50. The Beach Bum--$3.5 million. The lowest grossing wide release of the spring, and proof that the The McConaissance is really and truly over.