Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is dancing circles around From the World of John Wick: Ballerina at the domestic box office.
Lilo topped the North American chart for the third consecutive weekend with an estimated $32.5 million from 4,185 theaters after clearing the $300 million milestone on Thursday. Through Sunday, the live-action blockbuster’s global haul is an estimated $772.6 million, including $335.8 million domestically and $436.8 million overseas.
Ballerina, the first John Wick spinoff, opened in second place with a softer-than-expected $25 million from 3,409 venues, the lowest start of any title in the series except for the first John Wick. Ana de Armas plays the title role in the R-rated action pic, with main franchise star Keanu Reeves also making an appearance.
Three weeks ago, Ballerina was tracking to open to $35 million or more. Projections were lowered to $30 million-plus heading into the weekend and even further. The pic opened Friday in first place with an estimated $10.8 million, including $3.75 million in previews, but is expected to fall to second place on Saturday. (It’s opening day marked a near-low for the franchise.)
The good news: Ballerina nabbed an A- CinemaScore and strong audience scores, both on Rotten Tomatoes (94 percent) and PostTrak, so it could regain its step and have long legs. Lionsgate decided to bank big on its John Wick universe after seeing each subsequent film open to bigger numbers, an almos unheard of feat. That is, until now. Since Ballerina is a spinoff, expectations were always going to be different, but not to this degree and Lionsgate was looking for it to at least match John Wick: Chapter 2‘s $30.4 million opening in 2017, not adjusted for inflation.
So far, Ballerina is playing decidedly male, or 63 percent, according to PostTrak. Lionsgate and Thunder Road Films / 87Eleven Entertainment say they covered a notable chunk of the $90 million production budget with foreign sales.
Set during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the film follows Eve Macarro (de Armas), who is beginning her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma. Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus co-star, with Ian McShane and Reeves also turning up.
Directed by Len Wiseman from a script from Shay Hatten, Ballerina is based on characters by Derek Kolstad.
There’s plenty of competition when it comes to male-skewing action fare, led by Paramount and Skydance’s Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, which, like Lilo & Stitch, is enjoying a strong hold in its third outing (the two even titles opened opened opposite each other over Memorial Day weekend to fuel a record holiday).
Final Reckoning, marking Tom Cruise’s final turn as spy-with-the-mostest Ethan Hunt, placed third with an estimated $15 million from 3,456 locations for a domestic tally of $149.2 million. Overseas, where it is pulling in even bigger numbers, it earned another $40.7 million for an international haul of $301.2 million and $450.4 million globally.
After a softer-than-expected debut last weekend, Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends fell off 57 percent or more in its sophomore outing to $8.7 million from 3,859 sites for a muted domestic tally of $35.4 million through Sunday.
New Line’s Final Destination: Bloodlines, now in its fourth weekend, rounded out the top five, followed by the nationwide expansion of Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Phoenician Scheme, into a total of 1,678 theaters.
From Focus Features and Indian Paintbrush, Phoenician Scheme is projecting a $6.3 million weekend for a 10-day cume of $7 million after opening in its first six locations last weekend (it scored the top per-location average of the year to date, or $95,000.)
More to come.
June 8, 7:35 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published June 7 at 8:55 a.m.