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Box office: Toy Story 4 wins playtime for second week in a row with $58 million
Disney's Pixar continues to prove its potent punching power with Toy Story 4, which won the top spot at this weekend's box office for the second week in a row.
Adding another $58 million ($1 million more than Toy Story 2 but $1 million less than Toy Story 3 in their second weekends) to its domestic run, the sequel in the long-running franchise, one that turned Pixar into a household name, now has $237 million to its name in North America. In addition, it's already become the fourth-highest-grossing domestic film of 2019, following three other Disney-owned titles: Avengers: Endgame ($841 million), Captain Marvel ($428 million), and Aladdin ($299 million).
Directed by Inside Out co-writer Josh Cooley, Toy Story 4 is very much concerned with letting go of the past and taking our characters in a fresh and emotional new direction. After looking after Forky (Tony Hale), a homemade toy terrified of his own existence, Woody (Tom Hanks) begins to realize that—even under Bonnie's ownership—he may have outlived his usefulness.
This is also the second weekend in a row where the Toy Story brand outperformed another film about playthings coming to life. Last week, it was MGM's remake of Child's Play; this week, it's Warner Bros.' Annabelle Comes Home, the latest entry in the studio's shared, horror-centric Conjuring Universe. This trilogy capper to the Annabelle series, which first began in 2014, scared up $31 million domestically for second place.
Compared to the first two movies in the franchise, the threequel comes in last place in terms of opening weekend sales. Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation (2017) grossed $37 million and $35 million respectively when they first opened in theaters.
Written and directed by Gary Dauberman (the It screenwriter makes his directorial debut here), Annabelle Comes Home brings back Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), the two paranormal investigators who kicked off the entire Conjuring IP. When the titular doll awakens all of the evil objects in the couple's haunted museum, Ed and Lorraine have a devil (emphasis on that word!) of a time protecting their young daughter (Captain Marvel's Mckenna Grace) and her friends.
In third place we have Danny Boyle's Yesterday, with $17 million from 2,603 North American theaters. The fantasy flick stars Himesh Patel as Jack Malik, a small-time musician who, after an accident, is the only person on the planet who can remember the Beatles. Using his extensive knowledge of the Fab Four's discography, Jack goes on to become the biggest rock star on Earth, taking credit for songs he didn't actually write.
"It was so intense, that experience ... that [fans] forced the Beatles into a kind of spotlight, which then the Beatles used to start writing," Boyle explained to SYFY WIRE. "Because unlike a passing pop trend, they became writers, and they wrote those albums. And those albums changed the world, because they set the course for true pop culture, really. Including, in a way, the ... explosion of sci-fi. Because it was all about pleasure and youth. And it was about young people enjoying themselves. Comics slowly came center stage."
Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran, and James Corden all co-star.
Despite Marvel Studios' high-profile "Bring Back" event, it looks like Avengers: Endgame will not be taking Avatar's crown as the most lucrative film in history. With a touching tribute to Stan Lee, a deleted scene with un-finished VFX, and a glimpse at the opening scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home, the re-release only managed an extra $5.5 million in ticket sales, boosting its domestic haul to $841 million and its global total to $2.76 billion. That's just $38 million shy of James Cameron's first sci-fi adventure on the planet Pandora.
Two holdovers from previous weeks are Aladdin and The Secret Life of Pets 2, which nabbed the fourth and fifth spots with $9.3 million and $7 million respectively. In particular, Aladdin, a live-action remake of the 1992 Disney classic, has surpassed $300 million at the domestic box office and $568 million at the global box office.
(via Variety (domestic) and Box Office Mojo)
