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Men in Black International.jpg

Box Office Report: Second Best Chris Update

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | June 17, 2019 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | June 17, 2019 |


Men in Black International.jpg

The Summer box office has seemed relatively solid so far, but only when you include Disney movies. Take them out and wow, things are looking bleak. Nowhere is that more evident than in this week’s releases, as Sony’s big hopes for Men in Black: International fizzled out before they even really took off. The sequel-slash-reboot of the franchise was expected to open to around $40 million but could only scrape past $28.5 million. For perspective’s sake, that’s less than even Dark Phoenix’s opening weekend. Ouch. Reviews weren’t great, which didn’t help, but was anyone really asking for this film? I know we all love Second Best Chris and our lord and saviour Tessa Thompson, but that’s what we have Thor for.

In second place is The Secret Lives of Pets 2 with $23.8 million. It’s closing in on $100 million domestically, which is good news (and Illumination make these things cheaply enough - around $80 million a movie - so that the profit margins aren’t too tight) but this may be the first film they’ve made that could be considered a financial disappointment. Sequel fatigue hit hard. Well, unless you’re Marvel and Disney.

Speaking of Disney, Aladdin soared past $263 million domestic, with an international gross of $724.8 million so far. It’s already the third highest grossing movie of 2019 so far, behind Captain Marvel and, of course, Avengers: Endgame. The gross for Dark Phoenix saw a massive 72.6% drop from its opening weekend, bringing in a paltry $9 million. If this thing scrapes past $75 million domestic, I will be stunned.

The other big new release of the weekend was the latest sequel/iteration of Shaft, but that only managed to take in $8.3 million from just under 3000 theatres. Bad reviews and general lack of interest seem to be the primary explanation for such a disappointing gross.

Amazon’s big Sundance purchase of 2019 was Mindy Kaling’s Late Night, which ex[anded to 2,220 locations this weekend after a strong limited opening. While it only brought it around $5.1 million this weekend (Amazon spent a record $13 million acquiring it), expect this one to have the hell promoted out of it on the site once it drops there. That’s Amazon’s long game, although I imagine there is some disappointment that one of their more mainstream friendly purchases didn’t do better. Alas, the market is just going that way now.

Outside of the top ten, Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die made a respectable $2.3 million from 613 locations. Of course, this is a Jim Jarmusch movie, so expecting it to do gangbusters at the box office is just a wee bit silly.

In limited release, Sienna Miller’s American Woman opened in 117 theatres to just over $102k, while the re-release of the legendary Paris is Burning made $11,000 from one location. It’s also available to watch on Netflix so do your homework this Pride month!

This week sees the release of Wild Rose, the latest version of Child’s Play, Luc Besson’s latest sexy lady killer movie Anna, and, of course, Toy Story 4.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.

What films did you watch this weekend? Let us know in the comments.



Header Image Source: Sony Pictures