Aladdin’s reign over the U.K. Box Office has finally ended. Only another Disney film was able to knock Aladdin off the top. The release this weekend, June 21-23, 2019, of Toy Story 4 brought many to the cinemas.
Toy Story 4 made a weekend gross of £13.3 million, showing in 688 cinemas. The animated film performed better on its opening weekend than most of the new “live-action” adaptations by Disney. Aladdin, for example, despite being at the top of the Box Office since its release, only took £5.7 million on its opening weekend, and Dumbo made a little over £6 million.
However, if we take a look at the performances of other animated films, Toy Story 4 has not done as well as would be expected. Compared to Toy Story 3, which took over £21 million from 562 cinemas in July 2010 on its opening weekend, Toy Story 4 clearly underperformed in the U.K.
In the grand scheme of things, if we look at the U.K.’s Top Box Office opening weekends for animated films only, Toy Story 4 is ranked sixth, just behind The Simpsons Movie, which made £13.6 million in 2007. Toy Story 3 is at the top of that chart, followed by Shrek The Third, which took £16.67 million in 2007, then Shrek 2, which made £16.2 million in 2004, and then Despicable Me 2 with £14.8 million in 2013.
While in the U.S. Finding Dory and Incredibles 2 had performed better than Toy Story 4 has, this is not the case in the U.K. Finding Dory took £8.1 million from 588 cinemas in July 2016. Incredibles 2 made £9.65 million showing in 664 movie theaters in July 2018.
The figures for Aladdin, Men In Black International and Rocketman have not changed much from last weekend. Aladdin is now second in the chart with a weekend gross of £1.2 million, showing in 621 cinemas, and with a total gross after five weeks of £32.5 million. Men In Black International took a little over £1 million from 602 movie theaters and now has a total gross of £4.9 million. The Elton John biopic Rocketman is fourth at the U.K. Box Office with a weekend gross of £783,785 showing in 620 cinemas. It now has a total gross to date of £21 million.
Another new release entered the top five of this weekend’s Box Office. Sony Pictures’ Brightburn took £509,030 from 451 cinemas. Produced by James Gunn, and co-written by Brian and Mark Gunn, the super-anti-hero horror movie subverts the comic book mythology of Superman, exploring essentially what would happen if Superman was evil. There is also an interesting article in the French Huffington Post which sees similarities between Brightburn and the Japanese manga Dragon Ball. Much like Superman, Son Goku falls onto Earth as a baby, but unlike Clark Kent, he is destined to become evil and destroy the Earth. However, unlike the protagonist in Brightburn, Son Goku ends up fighting to protect the world after a hit on the head changes his personality from bad to good.
Still in the top 10 of the U.K. Box Office this weekend is Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 which took £480,072. After five weeks in cinemas, the film now has a total gross of £17.6 million. X-Men: Dark Phoenix made 333,279 from 427 cinemas and now has a total gross in the U.K. of £6.7 million. After six weeks in the movie theaters, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum took £165,866 from 185 cinemas and has a total gross to date of £9.9 million.
Child’s Play is the third new release this weekend to have reached the top 10 of the U.K. Box Office. The film distributed by Vertigo earned £247,573, showing in 305 cinemas. This remake of the 1988 film is directed by Lars Klevberg and written by Tyler Burton Smith. The killer doll, Chucky, is voiced by Mark Hamill. This new version of the story strips the doll from its supernatural possession elements.
