DIS Walt Disney Co

By Erich Schwartzel 

LOS ANGELES -- Walt Disney Co. once again did something that has eluded other Hollywood studios this summer: It opened a sequel to impressive returns at the box office.

Disney's " Toy Story 4," the latest installment in the studio's long-running talking-toy franchise, opened to a healthy $118 million in the U.S. and Canada.

While a solid start, that estimated gross is a bit below the gargantuan haul that some box-office analysts were projecting, and barely improves on the $110 million debut of "Toy Story 3" in 2010. That last sequel, though, performed well in the subsequent weeks and went on to collect $415 million at the domestic box office.

This weekend continues a 2019 winning streak for Disney that has so far included " Captain Marvel," " Avengers: Endgame" and " Aladdin."

It also contrasts with the underwhelming performance of several high-profile sequels hitting theaters this season, such as "Men in Black International," "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and "Dark Phoenix." The debut of "Toy Story 4" brought in about $8 million more than the combined opening weekends of those three films.

"Toy Story 4" reunites the voice cast led by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen since the 1995 original as the toys that spring to life when a child leaves the room. Since Disney acquired the property in its 2006 acquisition of Pixar Animation, "Toy Story" has become one of its hallmark franchises, with consumer products, television shows and theme-park attractions built around its characters.

"There's an ongoing draw for audiences to show up to see these characters," said Cathleen Taff, Disney's head of distribution.

International returns added about $120 million to the opening-weekend total.

In China, the world's No. 2 box-office market, the movie is running second to an unlikely competitor: Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," a 2001 animated classic that is just being released in Chinese theaters now.

One of the weekend's other new wide releases offered unusually specific counterprogramming to "Toy Story 4." An R-rated reboot of the 1980s horror movie "Child's Play" -- also about a doll that comes to life, but this one with murderous intentions -- grossed a so-so $14 million.

That is hardly a record-setting amount for an attempt at a franchise rebirth, but the movie's modest $10 million budget mitigates some of the losses for its studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

A third release, a Luc Besson-directed action film called "Anna," grossed a dismal $3.5 million, a flat-out flop of a debut for its distributor, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 23, 2019 12:58 ET (16:58 GMT)

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