Weekend box office – Toy Story 4 holds off newcomers as Spider-Man swings wild in China

It was a battle of the dolls for the top of the US box office this weekend past as newcomers led by Annabelle Comes Home attempted to dethrone Toy Story 4. Unfortunately for them, the Disney/Pixar animated film is still flying… not quite to infinity and beyond, but still at the top of the charts as Toy Story 4 held onto its first place with a $57.9 million take. That’s a 52% drop which is actually the biggest sophomore slump in the franchise’s history, continuing this fourquel’s trend of winning but still losing. That doesn’t mean it’s not doing good business around the world, as Toy Story 4 is currently hovering just under the half a billion dollars mark globally.

That means that Annabelle Comes Home – the sequel to the prequel of the Conjuring horror series (please keep up) – took second place on the charts. It opened domestically (US) to the tune of $20.3 million, which is considerably off the pace of the other franchise entries. Luckily, not only did the film open as early as Wednesdays in some regions, but like all Blumhouse productions, it has a relatively small budget. With a current worldwide take of $76.2 million, it’s already doubled its production price tag.

Rounding out the top three we have Danny Boyle’s romantic dramedy Yesterday. The film about a struggling musician who inexplicably wakes up in a world where nobody remembers The Beattles actually struck up a bit of a tune with US audiences. Expected to debut in the very low teens, Yesterday slightly exceeded predictions with a $17 million bow.

There were no other newcomers on the charts, but there definitely were highlights (and some low-lights). Disney’s Aladdin remake passed the $300 mark domestically and is now sitting on a global tally of $874.2 million, making this the highest-earning film of Will Smith’s career. Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame also started its “Bring Back” event as it was re-released in several cinemas in the US in an attempt for the comic book blockbuster to dethrone Avatar as the biggest movie in history. Final numbers are still coming in, but in the US the film exceeded expectations as it earned an estimated extra $5.5 million and hopped back into the top ten. At $2.761 billion, Endgame is now just $26 million behind Avatar and it will be one seriously close race to the finish as the film re-releases in more markets over the coming weeks.

On the other end of the box office success spectrum though, Child’s Play continued its woes as it plummeted a whopping 70% in its second weekend. The horror reboot earned only $4.2 million as it fell from second to eighth. It could be worse though as X-Men: Dark Phoenix has now dropped out of the top 10 completely. The beleaguered final Fox-produced X-Men film has already been pulled from thousands of cinemas across the US as the studio has seemingly given up on the superhero production. It is currently looking to lose over $100 million, potentially making it the biggest bomb of the year.

Flip-flopping back to the good news, as mentioned before we don’t have the full international box office numbers yet, but we don’t need them to know who the biggest winner was over in China.

Debuting a week earlier than in the rest of the world, Spider-Man: Far From Home had a massive opening in the key Asian market. At last count on Saturday night, it had already been sitting on $71 million and was looking like a possible $100 million three-day debut when all was said and done. That bests Spider-Man: Homecoming’s $69.2 million China opening by far, and actually gives it the third best Marvel debut in the country behind Avengers: Endgame ($175.9 million) and Avengers: Infinity War ($191 million). Far From Home opens in the rest of the world this coming Friday.

Let’s see what the rest of the US chart looks like:

NE = New Entry

Last Updated: July 1, 2019