Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Forky are still ruling the box office. Despite solid debuts from newcomers “Annabelle Comes Home” and “Yesterday,” Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” easily dominated North America.
The fourth chapter in the animated series collected another $58 million, boosting its domestic haul to a huge $237 million. After two weekends in theaters, “Toy Story 4” is already the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year. The first three spots – “Avengers: Endgame” ($841 million), “Captain Marvel” ($428 million), and “Aladdin” ($306 million) – all belong to Disney as well. Overseas, “Toy Story 4” picked up a solid $80 million for a global tally of $496 million.
Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Annabelle Comes Home,” the seventh installment in the Conjuring Universe, had the best showing among new releases. The supernatural horror film debuted in second place, earning $20 million over the weekend and $31.2 million since launching on Wednesday. While those ticket sales represent a franchise-low debut for the Conjuring series, its low production budget still marks a win for the studio. Gary Dauberman wrote and directed “Annabelle Comes Home,” which stars Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga and Mckenna Grace. The spooky sequel kicked off at the international box office with $45 million, taking its worldwide start to $76 million.
Females accounted for 57% of opening weekend audiences, with 53% of crowds under the age of 25. Overseas, “Annabelle Comes Home” brought in $45 million for a global start of $76.2 million.
“The interesting part of this weekend is the counter-programming that’s out there,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief. “The fact that ‘Yesterday’ did so strongly and [‘Annabelle Comes Home’] got to $31.2 million shows the health of our business. It can be tricky to find your audience, you just have to be more strategic.”
In a close third, Universal and Working Title’s “Yesterday” launched with $17 million from 2,603 venues. The romantic comedy follows an aspiring songwriter (newcomer Himesh Patel) who, after a freak accident, discovers he’s the only person who remembers the Beatles. “Yesterday” was directed by Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “Trainspotting”) and written by Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”). Rights to the catalog of John, Paul, George and Ringo’s greatest hits don’t come cheap, so Universal is hoping “Yesterday” has a long and winding road in theaters. The jukebox musical pulled in $7.7 million from foreign markets, bringing its weekend total to $24.7 million globally.”Yesterday” appealed to an older female audience. Women represented 56% of ticket buyers, while 75% of moviegoers were over the age of 25. It carries an A- CinemaScore.
“We know our audience is older,” Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, pointed out. “That group doesn’t necessarily run out opening weekend. Our audience scores on PostTrak and Rotten Tomatoes are tremendous. That combined should lead us to a long, healthy run at the domestic box office.”
A little farther down on domestic box office charts is “Avengers: Endgame,” which returned to the top 10 after Disney re-released the blockbuster with an unfinished deleted scene that didn’t make it into the initial film. The special screening, which also included a video introduction from director Anthony Russo and a sneak peek at “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” is in a bid to take down “Avatar” as the biggest movie of all time.
“Avengers: Endgame” added another $5.5 million in its 10th weekend of release, almost a 200% jump in ticket sales. That brings its box office receipts to $841 million in North America and $2.76 billion worldwide. The new numbers put Marvel’s juggernaut roughly $26 million behind “Avatar,” which has remained the highest-grossing film of all time for nearly a decade with $2.78 billion in global ticket sales.
In fourth place, Disney’s “Aladdin” generated $9.3 million in its sixth weekend in theaters, pushing it past the $300 million mark at the domestic box office. The live-action remake has now earned $306 million in North America and $568 million internationally.
Rounding out the top five is Universal and Illumination’s “The Secret Life of Pets 2” with $7 million. The animated sequel has now earned $131 million in North America.
In other box office milestones, Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” crossed $300 million worldwide. The Keanu Reeves-led sequel picked up $3 million this weekend, taking its domestic tally to $161 million.
Among specialty releases, Sony Pictures Classics debuted “Maiden” on six screens. The documentary about the first all-female yacht crew to sail around the world, made $500,715, averaging $8,453 per location.
Meanwhile, CBS Films’ expanded “Pavarotti,” Ron Howard’s non-fiction film about the acclaimed opera tenor, to 288 screens. It added $532,000 this weekend, taking its domestic tally to $1.8 million.
A24 also brought “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” to additional theaters across the country. It earned $482,387 in its fourth outing, where it’s playing in 155 venues. The drama, which debuted at Sundance, has grossed $2 million to date.
Elsewhere, Neon brought “Wild Rose” to 16 theaters, collecting $63,113 during its second weekend of release, pushing the musical drama to $135,403.
As a whole, the domestic box office is down almost 10%, according to Comscore. Industry watchers are hopeful that “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” “The Lion King” and “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” can help reverse the decline in ticket sales and push this summer to record heights.