With a surprise twist, Pixar and Disney’s new film Lightyear missed the Father’s Day weekend to stay with Jurassic World Dominion at the national box office.
This is the first time in the pandemic that there are three big Hollywood campaigns doing solid to big business (Top Gun: Maverick is the third). As a result, global national revenues reached an estimated $ 166 million, which is only 18 percent less than in 2019 (typically, this gap has been much larger). However, it is unclear whether the box office chart has recovered enough to support so much product.
Lightyear was expected to top the list with an opening of $ 70 million to $ 85 million. In contrast, the Toy Story spin-off reached a disappointing $ 51 million in 4,255 theaters. While this is a solid figure for the COVID-19 era, as well as the biggest pandemic opening for a family animated film, the start of Lightyear is nonetheless a disappointment considering note that it bears the Pixar logo.
Abroad, Lightyear earned $ 34.6 million from its top 43 markets for a global release of $ 85.6 million.
Chris Evans gives voice to the iconic Space Ranger in the original story, which marks the return of Pixar to the big screen after seeing several of his family animated films go straight to Disney + due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lightyear serves as a testament to the strength of the family market as the box office continues to recover.
Currently, the animated film has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 78 percent, which is definitely at the lower end for a Pixar bid, especially for the Toy Story franchise. The audience, however, gave him an A-CinemaScore.
Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion ranked No. 1 with $ 58.7 million from 4,679 locations for a national 10-day count of $ 247.8 million and $ 622.2 million worldwide (It is only the seventh Hollywood title to surpass $ 600 million in the pandemic era). Internationally, it earned another $ 76.1 million from 72 markets for a foreign record of $ 372.4 million. China’s total is now $ 92.8 million, making the film one of the highest grossing Hollywood releases of the pandemic.
One worrying note: Dominion fell 60 percent nationally, a bigger drop than the last two dinosaur movies.
Monday is a federal holiday in honor of June, so Monday may seem like more of a Saturday and a Sunday when it comes to box office traffic. Universal experts believe Jurassic World 3’s national total could rise to $ 68 million over four days.
Lightyear should also see a boost on Monday.
Paramount and Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick continued to be a formidable force in its fourth weekend. The feeling of cooling water dropped just 15 percent to $ 44 million for a national total of $ 466.2 million as it flew over the $ 500 million mark. Abroad, it earned $ 39.7 million from 64 markets for an overall increase of nearly $ 900 million, or $ 885.2 million.
Marvel and Doctor Strange in Disney’s Multiverse of Madness ranked No. 4 with $ 4.2 million for a national total of $ 405.1 million and $ 942.5 million worldwide. It now ranks No. 10 on the highest-grossing list of Marvel Cinematic Universe titles.
Disney and The Bob’s Burgers Movie of the 20th Century completed the top five with $ 1.1 million for a national total of $ 29.8 million.
At the box office, British comedy Brian and Charles opened for $ 830,000 in 279 theaters for an average of $ 711 per location, despite winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Focus Features acquired the film from Sundance for a reasonable price, according to experts.
More to come.
June 19, 8:35 am This story has been updated with revised weekend estimates.