The Summer box office got a much-needed boost thanks to the return of Woody, Buzz and the gang.Toy Story 4 opened to a franchise-best $118M over the weekend (inching past Toy Story 3's $110M mark) to take the top spot on the chart. While Pixar's latest has re-energized the box office, most predictions had Toy Story 4 taking in north of $150M this weekend. Whether fair or not, some will view this as a disappointment, but in terms of pure numbers it represents the best opening in the franchise, and the third best overall for Pixar—trailing Incredibles 2 ($182.7M) and Finding Dory ($135.1M). With nearly a month before it runs up against The Lion King, TS4 should be able to corner the market on family-themed fare at the box office and looks like a lock to be the season's No. 3 movie.
Opening in second place, the re-imagined horror flick Child's Play sliced its way to $14.1M. Impressively, that's the best opening for the long-running franchise (whose last entry was 21 years ago). Granted inflation plays a large part in that, but the studio has to be pleased with the results for the $10M-budgeted flick. That said, Child's Play doesn't look like it will find a seat at the Top 10 table with the big boys this season.
Holding strong in third place, Aladdin was down just 29.5% in its fifth weekend with $12.2. That pushes the musical remake to $287.5M after 31 days in release.
Fourth place went to Men in Black: International, which plummeted 64.2% after a mild first-place premiere last weekend. With $10.8M in its second weekend, the fourth film in the franchise sits at just $52.7M total.
Rounding out the Top Five, The Secret Life of Pets 2 was hit hard by the arrival of Toy Story 4, scratching its way to just $10.3 in its third weekend (-57.8%). Through 17 days the sequel has $117.6M—just $13M more that the original opened to and over $140M behind it at the same stage.