Weekend Estimates: Men In Black International Eyes $26M Debut; Secret Life of Pets 2 Adds $25M; Shaft Misfires w/ $8M in Poor Father’s Day Frame

Saturday Update: What promised to be an underwhelming Father’s Day weekend at the box office has lived down to expectations in an even more tepid way than expected.

Sony reports this morning that Men In Black International grabbed a $10.4 million opening day start, generally in line with final pre-release forecasts earlier this week but a far cry from initial expectations months ago. By comparison, yesterday’s showing was 26 percent below last week’s start by Dark Phoenix ($14.04 million), 14 percent behind 2017’s Mummy reboot ($12.04 million), 39 percent behind 2016’s Ghostbusters reboot ($17.13 million), and 41 percent off Men In Black 3‘s $17.664 million first day in May 2012.

For the weekend, Sony expects around $26.2 million for MIBI.

Landing in second place yesterday, Universal’s Secret Life of Pets 2 added $6.89 million, giving it an eight-day domestic haul of $75.1 million. Boxoffice projects a healthy second weekend hold around $25 million before a likely severe impact from next week’s Toy Story 4 release.

Aladdin took in another $4.746 million yesterday, boosting its domestic tally to a strong $251.5 million through 22 days of play. A fourth frame around $16 million or more is projected.

Landing far below expectations based on pre-release tracking, the Shaft follow-up opened to just $2.73 million on opening day Friday (including $600K Thursday night). That’s 66 percent behind the $8.04 million first day of fellow Samuel L. Jackson comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard back in August 2017. Boxoffice projects around $8 million for opening weekend now, even after considering potentially strong Father’s Day holds on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Dark Phoenix‘s box office flame-out continued with a massive 83 percent drop from opening day last week to $2.348 million yesterday. With $45.1 million in the tank domestically through eight days, the end of Fox’s X-Men run looks to turn in a sophomore frame around $9 million or so.

Opening this weekend’s expansions and openers, Late Night pulled $1.66 million from 2,220 locations (standing at $1.97 million in all so far), while The Dead Don’t Die took in $920K from 613 locations on opening day.

Early Weekend Estimates (Domestic)
FRI, JUN. 14 – SUN, JUN. 16

WIDE (1000+)

# TITLE WEEKEND   LOCATIONS   AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Men in Black: International $26,200,000 4,224 $6,203 $26,200,000 1 Sony / Columbia
2 The Secret Life of Pets 2 $25,000,000 -46% 4,564 3 $5,478 $93,244,390 2 Universal
3 Aladdin $16,300,000 -34% 3,556 -249 $4,584 $263,034,314 4 Disney
4 Dark Phoenix $9,100,000 -72% 3,721 0 $2,446 $51,862,350 2 Fox
5 Rocketman $8,700,000 -37% 3,021 -589 $2,880 $66,042,725 3 Paramount Pictures
6 Godzilla: King of the Monsters $8,300,000 -46% 3,207 -901 $2,588 $93,883,172 3 Warner Bros.
7 Shaft $8,200,000 2,952 $2,778 $8,200,000 1 Warner Bros.
8 John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum $5,500,000 -26% 2,033 -743 $2,705 $148,026,905 5 Lionsgate
9 Late Night $4,800,000 1849% 2,220 2216 $2,162 $4,800,000 2 Amazon Studios
10 Ma (2019) $3,600,000 -54% 1,794 -1022 $2,007 $40,339,995 3 Universal Pictures
11 Avengers: Endgame $3,600,000 -26% 1,450 -671 $2,483 $830,574,359 8 Disney

LIMITED (100 — 999)

# TITLE WEEKEND   LOCATIONS   AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 The Dead Don’t Die $2,500,000 613 $4,078 $2,500,000 1 Focus Features
2 POKÉMON Detective Pikachu $1,100,000 -65% 984 -1177 $1,118 $140,608,081 6 Warner Bros.
3 Dumbo $150,000 40% 150 38 $1,000 $114,033,318 12 Walt Disney Pictures
4 Captain Marvel $100,000 -39% 161 -14 $621 $426,625,952 15 Disney
5 Breakthrough $61,000 -25% 107 -30 $570 $40,571,382 9 20th Century Fox
6 Long Shot $60,000 -42% 133 -14 $451 $30,270,868 7 Lionsgate

Friday Report: Sony’s Men In Black International recorded an estimated $3.1 million from Thursday’s first shows, which began at 4pm in 3,472 domestic locations.

For comparison purposes, the MIB sequel/relaunch registered 38 percent behind Dark Phoenix‘s start last week ($5.0 million), 16.5 percent ahead of 2017’s The Mummy ($2.66 million), and 9 percent behind 2016’s Ghostbusters ($3.4 million).

More updates to follow…