Box office: Toy Story 4 plucks $118M from clearance bin; Child's Play stabs $14M

To quote the Thin Lizzy-inspired 1999 marketing slogan for Pixar's Toy Story 2, "The toys are back in town!" This weekend, two movies about playthings coming to life, Toy Story 4 and MGM's remake of Child's Play, went head to head at the box office.

Toy Story 4 nabbed the No. 1 domestic spot with a mint-condition $118 million, which is slightly smaller than the early projections of $140 million. Nevertheless, the fourth installment in the long-running Disney/Pixar franchise (which put the latter animation company on the Hollywood map) can still be considered a financial success as well as a critical one. Overseas, the movie raked in $120 million for an international debut of $238 million.

Credit: Pixar/Disney

Compared to all other animated movies ever to be released, Toy Story 4 achieved the fourth-biggest North American debut after Incredibles 2 ($182 million), Finding Dory ($135 million), and Shrek the Third ($121 million). In addition, it's only the third flick in 2019 to cross $100 million at the domestic box office during its first weekend, after Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame—both of which are also owned by Disney.

Directed by Inside Out co-writer Josh Cooley, the family-friendly feature finds Woody (Tom Hanks) reuniting with Bo Peep (Annie Potts) after several years apart and re-evaluating his purpose as a toy under Bonnie, who has just created an existentially troubled toy named Forky (Tony Hale).

Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear), Joan Cusack (Jessie), John Ratzenberger (Hamm), Bonnie Hunt (Dolly), Timothy Dalton (Mr. Pricklepants), Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head), Jeff Garlin (Buttercup), Carl Weathers (Combat Carl), Estelle Harris (Mrs. Potato Head), Kristen Schaal (Trixie), Blake Clark (Slinky), and Wallace Shawn (Rex) all return to voice their characters from previous movies and/or shorts.

Keanu Reeves (Duke Caboom), Jordan Peele (Bunny), Keegan-Michael Key (Ducky), Christina Hendricks (Gabby Gabby), and Ally Maki (Giggle McDimples) are all newcomers to the series, who add some of the best comedic gags ever to grace the colorful world of Toy Story. If you're an old-school comedy fan, make sure to keep your ears pricked up for the legendary voices of Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, Betty White, and Carl Reiner near the start of the film.

The new Child's Play stabbed its way to second place, but its domestic total opening of $14 million from 3,007 theaters is nowhere near the heights of Toy Story 4. Even so, it's riding on the cult status of the iconic horror/slasher franchise that first launched in 1988, taking in more than half of the ticket sales of the first movie.

Directed by Lars Klevberg, the remake puts a 21st-century spin on the well-known Chucky character (this time voiced by Mark Hamill), turning the famous killer doll—once a notorious murderer trapped in a toy's body via voodoo magic—into a piece of out-of-control smart technology that recalls the cautionary warning espoused by theTerminator series. Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, and Brian Tyree Henry make up the project's principal cast.

Credit: MGM

Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin from director Guy Ritchie took third place with another $12 million, bumping up its North American total to $288 million. Now in its fifth weekend, the adventure movie is doing better than its animated counterpart from 1992, which had fallen to just over $7 million during its own fifth weekend in theaters.

Now at $810 million in terms of global returns, Aladdin took in an addition $32.9 million from foreign markets this weekend.

In fourth place is Sony's Men in Black International, which neuralyzed $10 million in its second weekend in theaters. This marks a 65% drop in ticket sales (it bombed with $28.5 million last week) for a film that's only managed $52 million domestically thus far. It didn't do much better overseas, where it de-atomized $30.2 million for a foreign total of $129.4 million and a planet-wide total of $182.1 million.

Directed by F. Gary Gray, the sequel/soft reboot to the studio's popular franchise stars Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth as a younger generation of MiB agents.

Lastly, we have Universal and Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets 2, now playing its third weekend, in the fifth spot with an extra $10.2 million for a North American total of $117 million.

With another $10 million from foreign ticket sales this weekend, the flick's global total currently stands at $194 million. Based on projections at the moment, the follow-up may not be able to meet the expectations set by the original, which fetched almost $900 million worldwide in the summer of 2016.

Patton Oswalt, Harrison Ford, Tiffany Haddish, Lake Bell, and Kevin Hart are just a few of the major talents who lent their voice talents to the animated sequel.

(via Variety (domestic), Variety (international) and Box Office Mojo)