Friday Estimates: Dark Day at the Box Office
June 8, 2019
June might be in trouble, as both of the wide releases stumbled out of the gate missing expectations. The Secret Life of Pets 2 managed first place on Friday, but with just $16.5 million. This is 57% lower than the first film managed during its opening day. Unlike the first film, school was still in session for a lot of the film’s target audience during Friday, so that could help its legs over the weekend. Universal is projecting a $47 million opening weekend, but it might climb to $50 million. Even so, that’s still a serious decline over the first movie. The film did match the original at CinemaScore earning an A minus, so its weaker reviews aren’t going to be much of an issue. Additionally, the movie only cost $80 million to make, so even a $45 million opening won’t prevent the film from breaking even sooner rather than later.
Dark Phoenix only manged $14.0 million, putting it on pace for about $34 million. This would be the worst opening in the franchise by a wide margin. Additionally, it also has the worst reviews for the franchise and the worst CinemaScore at B minus. If you really want to look for a bright spot, the franchise is now owned by Disney, so they are not going to make another X-Men movie until they have the right project. Fox was making as many as possible, because it was one of the few franchises they owned that was making money. That studio hasn’t earned first place on the yearly chart since 2014 and it only cracked the top three once since then. They were desperate. Disney is not. It might take five years, but the next X-Men movie should actually be worth making.
Aladdin earned $7.03 million, which is actually better than expected, putting it on pace for $25 million over the weekend. Thankfully there are some pleasant surprises this weekend.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters only pulled in $4.2 million on Friday, 78% lower than its opening Friday. This might be the end of the MonsterVerse.
Rocketman is holding on a lot better with $3.76 million on Friday, down 41% from its opening Friday. It should match our $13 million prediction over the full weekend.
- The Secret Life of Pets 2 Comparisons
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- Dark Phoenix Comparisons
Filed under: Friday Estimates, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Dark Phoenix, Aladdin, Rocketman, X-Men, MonsterVerse