'Toy Story 4' Tops the Weekend Box Office With $118 Million
Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 4 topped the weekend box office and did so with the franchise's largest opening weekend yet, but even it seems to have been bitten by the summer's sequel slump as it too delivered well below studio and industry expectations. On top of that, UA Releasing's Child's Play finished in second place while also missing forecasted pre-weekend expectations while Lionsgate and Summit's Anna fell just shy of a spot in the top ten.
With an estimated $118 million, Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 4 topped the weekend box office, though fell well short of the studio's $140+ million expectations, not to mention Mojo's lofty weekend forecast. The performance is, however, the best of the franchise, topping Toy Story 3's $110.3 million opening back in 2010 and fourth largest animated opening ever, which are hardly milestones you can ignore. It's also worth mentioning this is the third largest opening weekend of the year, giving Disney the top four openings of 2019.
Also in Toy Story 4's favor is some of the best reviews of the franchise to go along with an "A" CinemaScore from opening day audiences. 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 in The Lion King. It also isn't until the mid-August release of Sony's The Angry Birds Movie 2 that another animated feature hits theaters, giving Toy Story 4 plenty of room to breathe.
To go along with strong reviews and an "A" CinemaScore, the film played to an opening weekend audience that was 52% female and 45% of the crowd was aged 25 or older. Looking at Pixar's last ten releases, the average multiplier is 3.44x, which would suggest a domestic run for Toy Story 4 over $400 million and looking at the animated studio's past June releases, that multiplier goes up to 3.56x, suggesting a possible domestic run over $420 million.
Internationally, Toy Story 4 brought in $120 million form 37 markets, representing ~64% of the overall marketplace and a $238 million global launch. The top market was Mexico, where the film opened with an estimated $23.4 million, representing the third highest opening of all-time in the market behind just Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War. From there, the UK was the second largest opening with $15 million followed by China ($13.4m), Brazil ($9.6m), Korea ($8.5m), Argentina ($6.9m) and Australia ($6.1m). The film will open in France and Italy next weekend followed by openings in Japan (Jul 12) and Germany (Aug 15).
UA Releasing's Child's Play delivered a second place finish with an estimated $14 million. Heading into the weekend the film was tracking similarly to Universal and Blumhouse's Ma, which debuted with over $18 million just a few weeks ago, and even the film's Thursday night previews ($1.65 million) suggested it was well on its way to a similar opening. However, it was unable to sustain its momentum and came up shy of the $16-18 million pre-weekend expectations. The film carries a reported budget around $10 million and received a "C+" CinemaScore from opening day crowds.
Exits show Child's Play played to an audience that was 52% male and 61% were over the age of 25. These demos are important when you consider Ma played to an audience that was 53% female and only 53% were aged 25 or older as we look ahead to next week, which sees Annabelle Comes Home arriving on Wednesday. That film should play to a crowd similar to Ma, leaning a bit younger and playing to a larger female audience, perhaps allowing both to pleasantly coexist for a couple of weekends.
Landing in third position is Disney's Aladdin with an estimated $12.2 million, dipping just -29.5% as it enters its fifth week in release with a domestic cume just shy of $288 million. Internationally, the film added nearly $33 million this weekend for an overseas cume that now totals $522.6 million and a global tally topping $810 million.
Sony's Men in Black International is already cratering after a disappointing debut last weekend, dropping -64% in its sophomore frame with an estimated $10.75 million and a domestic cume that now totals just over $52 million after ten days in release. Internationally, the film added just over $30 million for an international cume topping $129 million and a worldwide total just over $182 million.
Rounding out the top five is Universal and Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets 2, which dipped -58% in the face of Toy Story 4's debut, with an estimated $10.3 million for the weekend. The film's domestic cume now stands at $117.5 million as it enters its third week in release. The film also added another $10.8 million internationally this weekend for an overseas cume that now totals over $77 million and a global tally just shy of $195 million.
Outside not only the top five, but just missing the top ten, is Lionsgate's release of Summit's Anna. The action thriller from Luc Besson debuted with an estimated $3.5 million. The film received a "B+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, and of the overall audience, 61% were male and 88% were over the age of 25.
In limited release, Neon's Wild Rose opened in four theaters with an estimated $56,183 ($14,046 PTA); Magnolia's Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am opened in four theaters with an estimated $44,000 ($11,000 PTA); Metrograph re-released A Bigger Splash in one New York location with an estimated $18,000; and IFC's The Quiet One opened in six locations with $10,561 ($1,760 PTA).
Next weekend gets started on Wednesday with the release of the aforementioned Annabelle Comes Home, debuting in over 3,500 locations and then on Friday Universal will release Danny Boyle's Yesterday into ~2,600 theaters.
