'Toy Story 4' Has Disappointing Opening Weekend
by EG
Ahead of the weekend, some experts thought Toy Story 4 might rake in $200 million in North America in its first few days of release. It didn't even come close, and its actual take was well below even the most conservative predictions. Read on for details.
Pixar and Disney's critically acclaimed Toy Story 4 buzzed to the top of the North American box office chart over the weekend with $118 million, one of the biggest openings of all time for an animated movie despite coming in behind expectations.
The family tentpole bowed simultaneously in numerous foreign markets for an international launch of $120 million and $238 million globally, a record for the genre. It did huge business in Latin America and Europe, but struggled in China, where it took in $13.4 million.
Heading into the frame, prerelease tracking had suggested Toy Story 4 could debut in the $140 million-$165 million range in North America. Either way, the movie is a needed win for the summer box office after a series of stumbles. It is only the third release of 2019 to cross $100 million so far in its start, and gives Disney the four best openings of the year to date.
Fellow Pixar titles Incredibles 2 ($183 million) and Finding Dory ($135 million) top the list of biggest animated openings, followed by DWA's Shrek the Third ($125 million). One difference between Toy Story 4 and the previous Pixar titles is that the latter unfurled one week earlier over Father's Day weekend. This time out, Pixar had to contend with rival film The Secret Life of Pets.
Animated movies aren't known for their mega openings; rather, they can have long legs.
"This movie has great word of mouth and will run long through the summer. I don't deny that tracking had us at higher numbers, but this is a huge debut and shows how much people love these characters," says Disney distribution chief Cathleen Taff.
Toy Story 3 debuted in June 2010 to $126 million, preceded by Toy Story 2's $101.8 million bow in 1999 and Toy Story's $60.4 million launch in 1995. (All grosses have been adjusted for inflation. Unadjusted, the same grosses are $110.3 million, $57.4 million and $29.1 million, respectively.)
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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