'Dark Phoenix' Bombs, 'Secret Life of Pets' Has Solid Opening
by EG
Dark Phoenix turned in the worst opening of any X-Men film, failing to live up to even the most pessimistic projections for its weekend box office. Meanwhile, animated sequel The Secret Life Of Pets 2 did respectable business and won the weekend. Read on for details.
Via The Hollywood Reporter.
Dark Phoenix failed to rise at the North American box office over the weekend, where the superhero installment was beaten out by the animated offering The Secret Life of Pets 2. Overall, it wasn't a high-earning frame at the nationwide box office, although the specialty box office proved lucrative for Mindy Kaling's Late Night.
Universal and Illumination's animated family film Pets 2 collected $47.1 million on 4,561 screens. The pic earned a middling response from critics, with a 54 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but fared better with audiences, receiving an A- CinemaScore. Forty percent of Pets' audience was under 17 years old, while 62 percent was female.
In the movie, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Harrison Ford, Jenny Slate and Patton Oswalt voice star as a menagerie of family pets that get into various types of mischief while their owners are away.
Pets 2 is the tenth team-up for animation studio Illumination and Universal, with its opening weekend landing in the lower end of those titles, which includes 2011's Hop ($37.5 million), 2016's Sing ($54.9 million) and, most recent release, 2018's Dr. Seuss' The Grinch ($67.5 million). While Pets 2 debuted far below the 2016 original's massive $104.3 million, that pic was a box office anomaly and still holds the record for the highest-grossing opening ever for an original film. (The movie went on to take in $875.4 million at the global box office.)
Meanwhile, Dark Phoenix bombed with $33 million in stateside ticket sales on 3,721 screens, becoming the lowest-earning debut for an X-Men film ever. Previously, 2013's The Wolverine was the lowest-opening X-Men title, with a bow of $53.1 million. The last X-Men movie, 2016's Apocalypse, opened to $65 million.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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