Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | June 22, 2025
As we’ve discussed many times before here at the Pajiba Box Office Report, whenever the competition between two new films is a battle of the R-rated adult title versus the family-friendly one, it’s safe to bet your money on the latter. Well, this time around, things were very different.
Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, the latest addition to the zombie saga, took on Disney/Pixar and won. Thanks to some very strong reviews and one of the most memorable trailers ever made, it debuted at number two with $30 million from 3,444 cinemas. This is the biggest debut in the series, and with a reported budget of around $60 million, it should comfortably make its money back and then some.
Sadly, things weren’t so good for Elio, the latest Pixar title. It landed with a thud at number three with only $21 million from 3,750 theatres. It’s the worst-ever opening weekend for a Pixar film, and with a $150 million budget, things are looking dire. It’s a shame because reviews were good, and this won’t help convince Disney that investing in original stories is worth their while. A lot of Disney and Pixar’s animated films of the past few years have struggled with this issue: originals get shunted to Disney+, and we’re swarmed with sequels until the end of time. But hey, Elemental opened with less than $30 million domestically, and great word-of-mouth led to it having a $155 million gross in North America. Oh well, good luck with Toy Story 5, I suppose.
Both of these new releases were still beaten by How to Train Your Dragon, which held onto the top spot with a $37 million second week. It’s now hoarded $160.4 million in its cave of riches. That’s close to the $178.3 million that Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning has taken in over five weeks, but nowhere near the $386.7 million that Lilo & Stitch has earned in that same amount of time. Sequels, remakes, reboots … I have seen this future before.
The only other new release to crack the top ten was Kuberaa, an Indian crime drama, with $1.75 million from 500 locations.
In limited release news: the indie drama Familiar Touch took in $11.600 from one cinema; the 15th anniversary re-release of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth scared up $10,126 from four cinemas; and the documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore earned $6,020 from one place.
This coming week sees the release of M3GAN 2.0, the 25th anniversary re-release of the legendary In the Mood for Love, and the extended advert F1: The Movie.
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.
