A bit down to earth for ‘Dumbo’
It’s No. 1, but not soaring, at the box office.
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.
Disney reported 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” earned in their debuts.
The remake of the 1941 animated film stars Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito. It received mixed reviews from critics and has a middling 53 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Audiences who did turn out, however, had a different response and gave the film an A-minus overall, according to CinemaScore.
“We think it’s a solid start,” says Cathleen Taff, Disney’s executive vice president of theatrical distribution. “We’re encouraged and hopeful with audience word of mouth.”
Disney has two other high-profile live-action remakes coming out this year in “Aladdin” (May 24) and “The Lion King” (July 19).
“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,” says Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. “For Disney, the bar is set so high.”
“Dumbo” did bump Jordan Peele’s “Us” to second place. “Us” added $33.6 million, down only 53 percent, bringing its domestic total to $128.2 million in its second week. The Lupita Nyong’o doppelganger movie cost only $20 million. “For a horror movie, which generally have the scariest drops in the business, ‘Us’ is really holding in there,” Dergarabedian says.
Easing the “Dumbo” disappointment, Disney and Marvel’s “Captain Marvel” landed in third place in its fourth weekend with an additional $20.5 million. It now has earned more than $350 million in North America and is expected to cross the $1 billion mark globally sometime this week.
The teen drama/romance “Five Feet Apart” with Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson took fourth with $6.3 million, down only 27 percent in its third week. 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.
Final numbers are expected Monday.