'Men in Black: International' celebrates box office win with lackluster numbers

Weekend Box Office June 14-16, 2019

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — All is quiet and eerie at the domestic box office as “Men in Black: International” takes the top spot despite being largely ignored as it looks to finish the weekend with a scant $28 million. Previous entries in the franchise all opened over $50 million. Following recent trends, the film did far better overseas where it has earned nearly $74 million for worldwide total of $102 million against a $110 million budget.

In its second weekend “"<>>The Secret Life of Pets 2” fell 49% with $23.8 million. After 10 days, the film has earned $92 million in North America. The first film made $104 million domestically in its first three days. The worldwide total is $154 million. With a budget of $80 million, Universal Pictures and Illumination are Entertainment are likely to come away with a profit, but nothing remotely near the $875 million the original movie finished with in 2016.

Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Aladdin” held strong with $16.7 million for the weekend and a domestic total of $263 million. Worldwide the film has brought in $724 million. That’s good enough for third place at the worldwide box office for 2019. Only “Avengers: Endgame” with $2.742 billion ($45 million behind all-time leader “Avatar”) and “Captain Marvel” with $1.127 billion have earned more.

With $8.3 million “Shaft” didn’t exactly make a grand entrance. The silver lining here is that CinemaScore has audiences giving the film an A grade. Warner Bros. would happily trade for a C in exchange for the film opening closer to the expected $14 million.

“Dark Phoenix” is in a free fall as it dipped 72% from last week’s earnings with $9 million for a shocking domestic total of $51 million. Worldwide it has earned $204 million. Thank you, next.

Next week sees the release of “Toy Story 4.” Early projections have the film earning anywhere between $150 and $200 million domestically.