What Has Happened In The Last Two-and-a-Half Months of the Domestic Box Office?

On March 20, 2020, movie theaters came to a stop.

For the first time in history, movie theaters were suddenly abandoned and no longer showing movies. The entire release schedule for 2020 was thrown into disarray as the theatrical film business, like all other aspects of life, headed into uncharted waters brought out by COVID-19. One of the myriads of repercussions of movie theaters shutting down was that box office obsessives like myself suddenly had nothing to write about every Sunday morning. A Hollywood Reporter essay on the subject, published on March 23, 2020, was peppered with testimonies from box office analysts coming to terms with the new status quo of there being no box office to report.

Toy Story 4 Rules The Box Office Playground Again As Annabelle Comes Home Delivers Conjuring Series Lows And Yesterday Hits A High Note

Per usual for a PIXAR summertime sequel, Toy Story 4 reigned over the domestic box office for a second weekend in a row. Grossing another $57.9 million this weekend, Toy Story 4 fell 52% from its opening weekend, slightly better than the 56% second-weekend drop of Incredibles 2 from last year and roughly on par with the $59 million second-weekend gross of Toy Story 3 from nine years ago. Toy Story 4 has grossed $236.9  million in ten days of domestic release, putting it just behind the lifetime domestic gross of Brave ($237.2 million) and is slated to surpass the lifetime domestic gross of Toy Story 2 sometime this week. Now the question becomes can it beat Toy Story 3's $415 million domestic haul? It's still running about 5% ahead of Toy Story 3 in terms of overall domestic box office at the same point, but it's already having smaller weekend grosses. I say it's a coin toss at this point.

The Toys Are Back In Town With Toy Story 4's $118 Million Bow As Chucky Slices Up An OK Bow And Anna Misses Box Office Mark

Is a $118 million domestic opening disappointing? God no. However, that's the amount Toy Story 4 opened to this weekend and it did indeed come in notably below both Disney and industry expectations. $118 million is big but, admittedly, Toy Story 4 was supposed to be even bigger and its debut came in below the $135 million debut of Finding Dory and the massive $182.6 million bow of Incredibles 2 from last year. Still, that $124 million sum is the fourth-biggest animated movie opening weekend of all-time, the third-biggest opening weekend of 2019 and the fifth-biggest June opening weekend in history. Disney would have liked an extra $15-20 million, and Gods know anyone involved with the domestic box office would have loved Toy Story 4 to be as big as possible given the otherwise dismal June 2019 box office, but a $118 million debut is still a fine haul all in all, especially since its $120 million foreign box office bow gives it the biggest worldwide opening weekend ever ($238 million) for an animated movie.

Men in Black: International Falls Short of Its Predecessor, Ditto For Shaft While Late Night Draws Little in the Way of Viewership.

Another summer 2019 weekend, another box office frame where the new releases came up short, including the top title of the weekend, Men in Black: International. Though it was the first Sony/Columbia movie to top the domestic box office in six months (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was the last title from the studio to achieve that), Men in Black: International only grossed $28.5 million over the weekend, a 48% drop from the $54.5 million opening weekend of MIB 3, the last entry in this Men in Black series. It's also the first the live-action movie in history to open under $30 million despite playing in over 4,000 theaters.

A Rough Box Office Weekend See's Secret Life of Pets 2 Becoming First Illumination Box Office Disappointment While Dark Phoenix Is Given The Bird

Ever since they first came into existence with the first Despicable Me movie, Illumination has been unstoppable at the domestic box office (save for their one foray into live-action filmmaking, Hop). Each of their computer-animated films has grossed over $200 million domestically, all but one of those movies have cracked $250 million domestically and four of their titles have grossed over $850 million domestically. That winning streak came to an abrupt and unexpected win this weekend with The Secret Life of Pets 2, which, despite scoring the highest opening weekend theater count (4,561 locations) for a movie that isn't Avengers: Endgame grossed just $47.1 million. That's a whopping 55% drop from the $103 million bow of the first Secret Life of Pets and the first time ever an Illumination animated feature has opened below $50 million.

Lack of Jean Reno Causes Godzilla: King of the Monsters to Open With Only $49 Million Bow

"Let Them Fight"

1998s Godzilla movie wasn't as big as Sony/TriStar wanted, but thanks to it tapping into the sizeable Jean Reno fanbase that endures to this day, it still managed to become the ninth biggest movie of 1998. Keeping in mind what singular element catapulted that film to such big numbers, it's no surprise to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which couldn't even spring for a Jean Reno cameo, to open to only $49 million, down a whopping 47% from the opening of the 2014 Godzilla movie and down 20% from the opening weekend of Kong: Skull Island. To put things into perspective, this opening is closer to the $16.2 million bow of Michale Dougherty's last movie Krampus than it is to the $93.1 million debut of the 2014 Godzilla movie.

Disney's Never Had A 2010s Memorial Day Box Office Hit Like Aladdin While Fellow Newcomers BrightBurn And Booksmart Underperform

Note: all figures discussed in this article are three-day weekend estimates. Four-day Memorial Day weekend box office grosses are not discussed here.

The past few months, I’ve been convinced that Aladdin would end up being Disney’s big summertime box office misfire, which just goes to show you that there is one universal truth in this world: I know nothing. Aladdin ended up surpassing all expectations with a whopping $86.1 million bow, the sixth biggest three-day bow for a Memorial Day new release ever. It’s also the fourth-biggest opening weekend for a live-action Disney remake, only The Jungle Book ($102 million), Alice in Wonderland ($116 million) and Beauty and the Beast ($174 million) did better. It’s also the second-biggest opening weekend ever for Will Smith, only Suicide Squad had a bigger bow for the actor. This $86.1 million bow means Aladdin had the biggest opening weekend for a 2019 movie that isn't set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and means that Disney has three biggest opening weekends of 2019.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Has "Excellent!" Opening Weekend As A Dog's Journey Goes Nowhere And Sun Is Also A Star Burns Out

In just one weekend, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum has exceeded the entire $43 million lifetime gross of the original John Wick movie. This guy really is worthy of his legendary reputation. Grossing $57 million this frame, John Wick: Chapter 3 nearly doubled the opening weekend of the second John Wick movie and scored the biggest opening weekend ever for a Lionsgate movie that doesn't belong to either the Hunger Games or Twilight franchises. It's been fascinating to see the John Wick movies grow from being a sleeper hit to being a ubiquitous element of pop culture capable of opening to such hefty box office figures. Needless to say, these impressive opening weekend figures ensure that we'll be seeing plenty more of Baba Yaga in the future.

Avengers: Endgame Continues To Top Box Office While Detective Pikachu Is Super Effective With Biggest Video Game Movie Opening Weekend Ever

Chris Evans in an image from Avengers: Endgame

For the third weekend in a row, Avengers: Endgame was on top of the domestic box office, though it did fall a sharp 57% from last weekend for a third-weekend haul of $63 million. That's a much bigger third-weekend drop than usual for early summer Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (Avengers: Infinity War dropped only 45% in its third weekend), but it's doubtful anyone at Disney is complaining since that still gave Endgame the fourth biggest third-weekend in history and took it to $723.4 million domestically, making Endgame the third-biggest film of all-time domestically after just 17 days of release. It's also accumulated just under $2.5 billion worldwide as of this weekend, putting it just under $300 million away from toppling Avatar to become the biggest movie of all-time worldwide.

Avengers: Endgame Continues To Score With One of the Biggest Second Weekends In History While A Trio of New Releases Struggle

A spoilery image from the climax of Avengers: Endgame

Summer 2019 is now in full swing, with Avengers: Endgame having a second-weekend comparable to the opening weekends of past Marvel Cinematic Universe titles that have opened on the first weekend of May in the past. Grossing $145.8 million this weekend (only a few hundred thousand dollars behind the opening weekend of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), Avengers: Endgame fell 59% from its opening weekend, a bigger second-weekend drop than the 55% drop of Avengers: Infinity War, which was to be expected given how much of Endgame's opening weekend came from its $60 million Thursday night gross. That $145.8 million gross means that Endgame had the second-biggest second-weekend in history, only behind the massive $149.2 million second-weekend of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Opening Weekend Records Crumble As Avengers: Endgame Amasses Staggering $350 Million Opening Weekend

An image from the climax of Avengers: Endgame

Before May 2002, no movie in American history had opened to $100 million over its opening weekend.

The Curse of La Llorona Has Eggs-elent Easter Weekend Box Office Debut, Breakthrough Chills Out And Penguins Gets Frozen Out

Warner Bros./New Line Cinema keep on finding box office success by releasing low-budget horror fare produced by James Wan. The newest example of this trend was The Curse of La Llorona, which opened to a great $26.5 million, up 25% from the opening of Lights Out and nearly double its $15 million budget. Taking a well-known mythological figure like La Llorona and filtering it through the style of horror popularized by those Conjuring movies sounded like a can't-miss proposition on paper and the strong marketing campaign from Warner Bros./New Line Cinema ensured that it would fulfill its potential. Even if this one ends up being frontloaded, it's hard to imagine it closing its domestic run under $60 million, four times its budget. Chalk up another success for a James Wan produced horror film.

Shazam! Tops The Box Office Again As Little Has Solid Medium-Sized Bow, Hellboy Flames Out, After Exceeds Expectations And Missing Link Gets Lost

The pre-Easter weekend is usually a little busier than it is this year, though the impending release of mega-juggernaut Avengers: Endgame is likely keeping films at bay (though next weekend is a touch busier than usual pre-Avengers weekends). The lack of massive new releases allowed Shazam! to top the domestic box office again as it grossed another $25.1 million, a 53% drop from last weekend. That's a smaller than usual second-weekend decline for a superhero movie (they usually fall in the 56-59% range) and is the second-biggest second-weekend hold for a DC Extended Universe film, only Wonder Woman held better. After ten days of domestic release, Shazam! has grossed a stupendous $94.9 million.

Shazam! Is The Word At The Domestic Box Office While Pet Semetary Comes Alive And The Best of Enemies Doesn't Make Many Friends

It's the first or second weekend of a month, so you know what that means. It's time for a superhero movie tentpole and this time around it was Shazam!, which opened to $53 million. That's the lowest-grossing opening weekend for a live-action movie based on either a Marvel Comics or DC Comics property since Fantastic Four/Fant4stic in August 2015, but luckily, Shazam! only cost $90-100 million to make, significantly less than the usual comic book movie (Aquaman cost $200 million, for example), so it didn't need to bring home a massive Avengers: Infinity War-sized opening to be successful.

Dumbo Debut, Unlike Unplanned, Disappointing, Beach Bum Bombs

Previously, modern-day live-action remakes of classic animated Disney movies had been foolproof at the box office. Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, all of them grossed over $200 million domestically and became massive moneymakers for Disney. The newest entry in this trend, Dumbo, failed to soar compared to its predecessors with only a $45 million bow, which does make it the fifth biggest bow for a Tim Burton directorial effort (only about $600,000 behind the bow of Batman Returns from all those years ago) but puts it way behind all the other recent live-action Disney remakes and is a poor showing for a movie that cost $170 million (you read that right) to make. For comparison's sake, Cinderella opened to $67.8 million four years ago while costing only $90 million.

Former Gremlins 2 Creative Consultant Jordan Peele Scores Another Box Office Hit With Massive Opening Weekend For Us

Just two years after Get Out became one of the most beloved horror films of the decade, writer/director Jordan Peele returned with his follow-up feature Us, which managed to build upon the already strong box office performance of Get Out by grossing $70 million on opening weekend. That's the third-biggest opening weekend ever for a horror film, the sixth-biggest opening weekend for a feature film not based on a pre-existing property (only The Secret Life of Pets, Inside Out, Avatar, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo fared better) and it's also the eleventh-biggest opening weekend ever for a movie opening in March. Us was made for only $20 million, so clearly Universal/Blumhouse/Monkeypaw are all already in the clear profit-wise.

Captain Marvel Continues To Soar At The Top of Domestic Box Office As Wonder Park Sees Scarce Attendance, Five Feet Apart Is Reasonably Infectious And Captive State Has Small Populace

The Mississippi Grind fans kept coming out in droves to see the newest film from Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck as Captain Marvel grossed another $69.3 million this weekend. Down 54% from last weekend, that second-weekend drop is slightly better than usual in terms typical second-weekend declines for Marvel Cinematic Universe fare. Having now grossed $266 million after ten days of domestic release, Captain Marvel has surpassed the lifetime domestic grosses of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Doctor Strange and Captain America: The Winter Soldier and will likely cross $300 million domestically by Sunday. Barring unexpectedly large drops in the next two weeks, Captain Marvel should be able to clear $400 million domestically and $1 billion worldwide. The power of the Mississippi Grind fandom has once again been reinforced.

"Higher, Further, Faster" Indeed, Captain Marvel Soars With A Massive $153 Million Opening Weekend

The twenty-first Marvel Cinematic Universe title, Captain Marvel, managed to become one of the franchises biggest features yet with a massive $153 million domestic opening weekend. That makes (everyone take a deep breath now!) Captain Marvel the biggest movie of 2019 domestically while also scoring the seventh-biggest opening weekend ever for an MCU title and the third-biggest for a non-sequel (only behind The Avengers and Black Panther). It's also the eleventh biggest opening weekend for any superhero movie in history, the eleventh biggest opening weekend for any Disney title ever (eight of Disney's thirteen biggest opening weekends belong to Marvel movies) and the third-biggest opening weekend ever for a movie opening in March.  It's also already Brie Larson's second-biggest movie ever and it should surpass the $168 million domestic gross of Kong: Skull Island sometime this week to become her biggest movie ever. But it wasn't just in North America that Captain Marvel impressed, no no, its worldwide opening weekend was $455 million, the sixth biggest worldwide opening weekend in history, an astonishing feat for a movie starring a character who had never previously appeared in a live-action movie before.

Dragons Stay Atop The Box Office As Madea Goes Out On Strong Box Office Note And Greta Disappoints In First Weekend of The March 2019 Box Office

Back on Friday, it looked like a more neck-and-neck race for the top spot at the domestic box office between How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and A Madea Family Funeral, but the animated dragons had the upper hand, though both titles managed to prosper over the first weekend of March 2019. The first seven weekends of 2019 might have been slow, but as this weekend shows, injecting some compelling titles into the marketplace will always get things back on track. Topping this frame was How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World with a $30 million second weekend haul. That's a 45% drop from last weekend, an improvement over the 50% drop of the second movie and the biggest second-weekend for any entry in the series. With $97.6 million after ten days of domestic play, The Hidden World looks like it'll make a serious play for a domestic total just over $200 million.

All Hail Toothless As Dragons Not Voiced By Sean Connery End 2019 Domestic Box Office Cold Spell With Great $55.3 Million Opening Weekend

Nearly three years ago, Universal bought DreamWorks Animation, adding a second major animation company to the studios to accompany hit-maker Illumination. This weekend saw the release of the first Universal/DreamWorks Animation feature, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and it kicked off the duo's partnership in style with the biggest DreamWorks Animation opening weekend in seven years. Opening to $55.5 million, the newest Hiccup & Toothless adventure beat out pre-release box office tracking to score the biggest debut ever for a How to Train Your Dragon movie, beating out the $49.4 million opening weekend of the second movie by 12%. It's also the eighth biggest opening weekend ever for a movie opening in February and the eighth biggest opening weekend ever for a DreamWorks Animation feature.