It wasn’t the opening weekend Disney would have expected, but it isn’t exactly doom and gloom for them. Tim Burton’s ‘Dumbo’ didn’t take off this weekend, but with $47M in the United States it isn’t bad at all for an adaption of a 79 year old story.
With $47.4M this weekend, ‘Dumbo’ didn’t electrify the global box office, however it is higher than what pundits were estimating on Saturday morning after the rather dismal $15.2M Friday opening day. However the $170M budget has made this film another escape attempt by Disney to make one of their original’s to break even.
Worldwide the film opened to $130M and shouldn’t suffer too badly by the mixed reviews internationally, and an added benefit for the Disney execs. in the United States is that the film received an A- Cinemascore. That could suggest that the audience enjoyed the film more than critics, and possibly good legs then.
Next weekend ‘Shazam!’ will be released from Warner Brothers, but until ‘Avengers: Endgame’, ‘Dumbo’ doesn’t have a huge amount of competition. Due to this, I’m seeing a domestic gross north of $150M, but once again, that’s not great considering the huge budget, meaning it will have to reach at least $415M worldwide to break even in its theatrical run.
Taking second place is Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’, continuing to impress. The film dropped 52.5% in its second weekend. That isn’t spectacular, however it is better than the average 55-60% drop for horror films. This brings its ten-day cume to $128.7M after taking $34.1M this weekend. It is looking like it will be a 50/50 coin toss now for $200M in the United States, but should be able to gross more than ‘Get Out’, although ‘Pet Cemetery’ will be released next weekend, looking at a rather large $25M Opening Weekend which could damage its chances.
‘Captain Marvel’ continues to impress as it take a $20M fourth weekend, a 40% drop for $353.5M in the US so far. From here it looks like it will be able to break $400M in the US, although it won’t be able to reach much higher. Also ‘CM’ is just shy of $1BN worldwide right now and should pass that figure midweek.
In holdover news, ‘Five Feet Apart’ continues to become the sleeper hit of the season, now at $36M. ‘A Madea Family Funeral’ hits $70M in the US, and ‘How To Train Your Dragon 3’ hits $155M in the US and passes $500M worldwide.
Expanding into 950 locations, Armie Hammer’s ‘Hotel Mumbai’ impressed by taking $3.2M. From here the film will look to become a sleeper hit, and with good audience and critic reviews, there is a good possibility.
Here are the weekend estimates:
1. Dumbo – $47.8M
2. Us – $34.1M
3. Captain Marvel – $20.1M
4. Unplanned – $6.7M
5. Five Feet Apart – $6.2M
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