'Aladdin' Tops The Holiday Weekend Box Office, 'Brightburn' And 'Booksmart' Are Mostly On Target
The Memorial Day weekend box office gave audiences an extra day to catch new releases this weekend, and it seems like everyone was clamoring to see how Disney fared with their latest live-action remake of an animated classic.
Aladdin topped the weekend box office with a three-day opening weekend of $85 million. But when all is said and done for the four-day holiday weekend, the movie will have raked in $112.7 million. However, some estimates see the movie possibly hitting around $110.9 million, which would have it take the #5 spot of the biggest Memorial Day weekend openings from X-Men: Days of Future Past. But how did other new releases like Brightburn and Booksmart turn out? Find out in the rest of our box office report.
Globally, Aladdin did pretty well, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie hit every international market except Japan, where it won't open until June 7, and it earned $121 million from all those territories, giving it a $233 million worldwide debut. It's nowhere near some of Disney's more recent worldwide debuts, but considering the skepticism surrounding some of Disney's live-action remakes lately, that's nothing to scoff at by any means.
Coming in at the #2 spot is John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which dethroned Avengers: Endgame from the top spot last weekend. The three-day weekend has the sequel adding $24.35 million for the three-day weekend, and a little over $30 million for the holiday weekend. That's enough to push the movie over the $100 million milestone after 10 days, which is pretty great for an R-rated action franchise whose first installment only made $43 million in its entire domestic run. And as we know, the movie was already deemed successful enough to warrant John Wick: Chapter 4 for release in May 2021.
Still holding on in third place is Avengers: Endgame, which pulled in another $16.8 million for the three-day weekend and $22 million for the four-day holiday weekend. That will push the film over $800 million on the domestic charts, making it the second movie to hit that milestone after Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But it would have to earn another $133 million in order to take the #1 spot, and we're not sure that's in the cards with a movie that's been in theaters for four and a half weeks now.
In fourth place, Detective Pikachu brought in $13.3 million for the three-day weekend and an estimated $17.5 for the four-day weekend. The movie just recently crossed the $100 million mark, and should hit around $120 million by the end of the holiday weekend. It seems to be doing much better internationally with a total of $236 million, taking its global total to $353 million.
Finishing the top five, Brightburn debuted with only $7.5 million (though Deadline has the movie making around $7.9 million) and a $9 million holiday weekend. That's pretty close to the $8 million expected opening from Screen Gems, and not bad for a movie with a budget of $6 million. However, apparently the movie may have actually cost around $12 million. That number doesn't include the cost of marketing, so this one might have a hard time breaking even. A summer release was probably ill-advised for a movie like this, and it probably would have been better served for an early spring or fall debut. Maybe it will get new life on home video.
Finally, coming in at #6 is Booksmart, the last new movie with a wide released. Debuting in that spot doesn't sound good for the movie with just $6.9 million for the three-day weekend and $8.7 million for the holiday haul. Some have been expressing disappointment in the movie that seemed like it could be a comedy hit like Superbad, but since it came from Annapurna and didn't get quite as big of a marketing push, it was never going to be that big, especially as a R-rated comedy. The good news is that the movie is doing solid business along the lines of similar movies like The Edge of Seventeen. So while it might not seem like it's doing well, it's far from a bomb. Hopefully word of mouth will help the movie grow, though the competition of blockbuster summer may make that difficult.