Ragesh Dipu
Disney’s live-action flick ‘Aladdin‘ is on its way to hit a Memorial Day weekend debut of $100M. According to Variety, the musical fantasy starring Will Smith and Mena Massoud is expected to gross around $87M in its first three days from 4,476 domestic centers. The movie has already collected $31M on Friday. If the estimates hold, ‘Aladdin’ will finish its first week at the box office with the sixth-highest Memorial Day weekend debut of all time.
The movie has gone past ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story,’ which has a 4-day debut haul of $103M last year. But ‘Aladdin’ is yet to catch up with the 2014 movie ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ which holds a record of $110.5M 4-day debut gross. Though the threat of a day-to-day drop in the collection is apparent, ‘Aladdin’ has the word of mouth and strong groundwork on its side.
The movie has a 58% Rotten Tomatoes score, a Postrak score of 4.5/5 and an A on CinemaScore so far. But it strikes a chord with the nostalgic Disney fans and it is expected that the movie could keep its momentum in the coming week too. ‘Aladdin’ is directed by Guy Ritchie, with Will Smith reinventing the mythical Genie. Massoud plays the titular hero and Naomi Scott portrays his love interest Jasmine. The other cast includes Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Nasim Pedrad, and Billy Magnussen. Ritchie co-wrote the script with John August.
Lionsgate’s ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum‘ captures the second place with a $6.6M on its second weekend. The movie scored a $30M 4-day total in its first week at the box office. The estimated two-weekend gross of ‘Parabellum’ is $106M. The encouraging pace at the box office also makes the movie the first Lionsgate title to cross the $100M mark domestically in the last 18 months.
The superheroes of ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ are still unbeatable with an estimated $22M on its fifth weekend. The movie has already amassed a domestic overall haul of more than $800M. Warner Bros. and Legendary live-action movie ‘Detective Pikachu‘ takes fourth place with $17M. The movie has earned a three-weekend overall haul of $120M.
Surprisingly, Sony and Screen Gems’ horror flick ‘Brightburn‘ enters the top 5 with an impressive Friday haul of $3M from 2,607 screens. The movie is expected to hit a $10M 4-day opening gross. Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut ‘Booksmart’ collected an estimated $2.5M on Friday. The movie has an estimated $8.4M mark for the Memorial Day weekend from 2,505 screens.
Cover Image Courtesy: Walt Disney
