As expected, Disney continued to tighten its grip on the box office with the release of Pixar’s “Toy Story 4,” which opened this weekend to an estimated $118 million from 4,575 theaters.
Though pre-weekend projections were expecting a larger opening — Disney estimated $140 million while analysts thought it could challenge the animation opening record of $182 million held by “Incredibles 2” — it still stands as the third highest opening weekend of 2019 so far behind only “Captain Marvel” and “Avengers: Endgame.” Overseas, Woody and pals added $120 million from 37 markets, including an animation record $15 million opening in the United Kingdom. That comes together for a global opening of $238 million.
Combined with “Aladdin,” Disney now holds the four highest openings of the year, with Universal’s “Us” still standing as the highest non-Disney opening with $71 million. “Toy Story 4” also stands as the fourth highest opening ever for an animated film, sitting just behind the $121 million start for 2007’s “Shrek the Third” and ahead of the $110 million opening earned by “Toy Story 3” in 2010.
While the longevity of “Toy Story 4” will be challenged in July by “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” critical and audience reception has been characteristically strong for Pixar’s latest offering. The film matched the Rotten Tomatoes and CinemaScore results of “Toy Story 3” with 98% and an A respectively.
In a very distant second is Orion/United Artists’ reboot of “Child’s Play,” which is opening slightly below pre-weekend projections with a $14 million opening from 3,007 screens. Once again, low-budget horror is turning a decent profit for studios against major blockbusters, as this film sports a $10 million budget. However, the drop off next weekend will likely be steep as “Child’s Play” earned a C+ from CinemaScore, though critics were actually fairly positive with a 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Taking third on the charts is “Aladdin,” which passed $800 million worldwide this weekend by adding $12.2 million domestic and $45 million worldwide, bringing its totals after five weekends to $287.5 million domestic and $810 million global.
In fourth is Sony’s “Men in Black: International,” which fell a steep 65% from its franchise-low $30 million opening for a $10 million second weekend and a 10-day total of $52 million. Neck-and-neck with “MIB” is Universal/Illumination’s “The Secret Life of Pets 2,” also with $10 million in its third weekend. The $80 million sequel now has a domestic total of $117 million and a global total of $194 million.
Outside the top five is Lionsgate’s “Anna,” which opened to only $3.5 million from 2,117 screens and against a reported $30 million budget. While audiences were rather positive about the assassin action film with a B+ on CinemaScore, critics panned it with a 25% Rotten Tomatoes score. The movie hit theaters with bad publicity surrounding it, as its director, Luc Besson, was accused last year of sexual abuse by multiple women. Next weekend, “Anna” hits theaters in Besson’s home country of France, which has historically been where the director’s films have performed well.