LOS ANGELES -- Disney's Dumbo isn't exactly taking flight at the North American box office the way its other live-action remakes of animated classics have, but it still was last weekend's box office leader.
The Walt Disney Co. said Sunday that the Tim Burton-directed film has earned an estimated $45 million domestically from 4,259 locations against a $170 million production budget. It's less than half of what Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book and Burton's own Alice in Wonderland opened to.
The remake of the 1941 animated film stars Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito. It got mixed to negative reviews from critics.
Dumbo was hobbled by a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 52 percent -- meaning just over half of critics recommend it. Remaking classic films is a key part of Disney's strategy, which also includes Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar films. But the company has been less successful reviving beloved characters, with pictures like Alice Through the Looking Glass and Pete's Dragon coming up short of past efforts.
Audiences who did turn out, however, had a different response than the critics and gave the film an A- overall, according to CinemaScore.
"We think it's a solid start," said Cathleen Taff, Disney's president of theatrical distribution. "We're encouraged and hopeful with audience word of mouth."
Internationally, Dumbo grossed $71 million, with $10.7 million coming from China, $7.4 million from the United Kingdom and $7.2 million from Mexico.
"I don't think this is a mandate against live-action remakes. But sometimes when you don't have the reviews, it can affect it," said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore's senior media analyst. "For Disney, the bar is set so high. This is just a little speed bump on what is already a spectacular year for Disney."
Disney has two other high-profile live-action remakes coming out this year in Aladdin (May 24) and The Lion King (July 19).
Still, overall results were strong for theater owners, with ticket sales for the top 10 movies coming in about 11 percent higher than a year ago, Comscore said. Box Office Pro was forecasting a 25 percent increase. Exhibitors came into the weekend with sales down 17 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Universal's Us, Jordan's Peele's family-unfriendly follow-up to his landmark 2017 feature debut, Get Out, easily landed in second place, selling $33.6 million in tickets, according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data. That's more than enough to send its cumulative sales past the $100 million mark: after two weekends, the film has now made about $128.2 million domestically.
"For a horror, which generally have the scariest drops in the business, Us is really holding in there," Dergarabedian said. "It's good news for Jordan Peele."
Now in its fourth week, Disney's Captain Marvel landed at No. 3 with $20.5 million for a cumulative $353.8 million. It earned $46.9 million globally for a cumulative $990.6 million and will likely cross the $1 billion mark by this weekend. It currently stands as the No. 10 global superhero release of all time.
In fourth place, CBS Films and Lionsgate's Five Feet Apart added $6.3 million in its third weekend for a cumulative $35.9 million.
And the pregnancy movie Unplanned rounded out the top five with $6.1 million from only 1,059 theaters. It's another success for Pure Flix, which targets the faith-based audience.
"Serving that underserved audience can pay off quite well," Dergarabedian said.
Not so lucky was The Beach Bum, a stoner-odyssey from the provocative filmmaker Harmony Korine starring Matthew McConaughey. It grossed only $1.8 million from 1,100 locations in its first weekend.
"[This] week is going to have two of the biggest genres hitting the multiplex simultaneously," noted Dergarabedian. The well-reviewed superhero pic Shazam! debuts along with a Pet Sematary remake.
In limited release starting today, Neon premieres the Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace, and Greenwich Entertainment opens The Public.
MovieStyle on 04/05/2019