In June, the Fox X-Men film series is coming to an end, while beloved franchises like Toy Story and Men in Black make their return, and, as she always does, Annabelle the doll has returned to the big screen to toy with us all.
SELECT NORTH AMERICAN OPENING WEEKEND PREDICTIONS – June 2019:
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix – Fox / Disney – June 7th – $38 million
- Men in Black: International – Sony / Columbia – June 14th – $32 million
- Toy Story 4 – Buena Vista – June 21st – $157 million
- Annabelle Comes Home – Warner Bros. / New Line – June 26th – $42 million
I haven’t yet seen Dark Phoenix, but I’ll probably have a full written review up on the site at some point this weekend. But it isn’t looking good for the final Fox-led X-Men film. X-Men Apocalypse opened to $8.2m in Thursday night previews, which was right around Days of Future Past, and its opening weekend total was at $65m. However, Dark Phoenix has already had its Thursday night preview total released and it’s only at $5m. That isn’t good. Now, granted, Shazam! had just under $6m in previews but still opened with $53m, but I don’t think Dark Phoenix will be as lucky considering the piss-poor critical reception and audience anticipation.
Sony is hoping to make a splash with MIB: International off of Chris Hemsworth’s star power and Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson’s chemistry. I love the first Men in Black-film, but I hate the third film, and if it weren’t for the cast, then I probably wouldn’t be interested in this film. All three of the ‘original’ Men in Black films opened at around $50m, which I feel pretty confident in saying this new film will not.
Toy Story 3 opened to $110m in 2010 and was a huge critical and box office success. I’m expecting another upward jump for the popular animated film series. I don’t think it’ll open as big as Incredibles 2 did, but I think it’ll end up as the second biggest Pixar-opening.
And, finally, Annabelle comes home this month in the movie appropriately titled Annabelle Comes Home, which revolves around Annabelle’s actions in the Warren family’s home. I’m betting on the fact that the appearance of the Warrens will give this film a boost, even though I don’t think they’ll be in it for more than a small handful of scenes. No Conjuring-film with ‘Annabelle’ in the title has gotten a bigger opening than Annabelle‘s $37m opening in 2014. That’ll change, though, as I’m thinking this new film will open to something like $42m, which would be the second biggest opening of the Conjuring-franchise.
For the second month in a row, this month’s version of the Box Office Report is going to be an Endgame-special edition. And, sorry, folks, but it doesn’t look like Avengers: Endgame will reach Avatar. Endgame currently sits at $2.72 billion, while Avatar rests at $2.78 billion. It doesn’t look like a big mountain to climb for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but Endgame is no longer being shown in China, and its competition during the summer movie season is overwhelming. It looks like Endgame is destined to rest at #2 in both the all-time domestic and all-time worldwide charts.
- Avengers: Endgame – $2.72bn
- Captain Marvel – $1.12bn
Aladdin isn’t going to join Marvel’s favorite 2019 hero pictures in the billion dollar club, and Spider-Man isn’t out until July. But, wait, there is one film opening this month that could actually join them very soon. Toy Story 3 crossed the billion dollar mark and Toy Story 4 might as well.
– Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 