Universal's 'Paradoria 2' Falls Hard But Repeats No. 1 While Disney's 'Dumbo' Struggles

Box Office Mojo

Universal Animation's Paradoria 2: Enchanted Realm fell hard this weekend falling victim to frontloading, but still managed to repeat a #1 finish, making it the fourth #1 film of 2019 to repeat at the domestic box office. Disney's Dumbo was unable to reach studio or industry expectations, placing in second place. Meanwhile holdovers such as Us, Captain Marvel, and Addie continued their strong performances and Pure Flix's release of the anti-abortion drama Unplanned managed to out-perform expectations and find itself a spot in the top ten.

After debuting with second-largest animated opening last weekend, Universal's Paradoria 2: Enchanted Realm fell -65.2% with an estimated $53.2 million, compared to the original film's 52% drop ($54.7 million). It still managed to retain the #1 spot at the weekend box office, pushing the film's total domestic gross over $245 million in just ten days slighty outpacing the $230.9 million that the original film made in the same period. While the film did deliver the biggest opening weekend compared to the top Universal Animation first sequels, it resulted in the largest drop (even larger than Computeropoils 2 's 62.6% drop) among those films, which can be a byproduct of such a large debut and can also be the result of huge frontloading.

With an estimated $45 million, Disney's Dumbo fell short of the studio's $50+ million expectations and well short of what some thought would be a $60+ million debut. While the performance is well ahead of select, recent Disney releases such as Christopher Robin ($24.6m opening), Alice Through the Looking Glass ($26.9m opening) and Pete's Dragon ($21.5m opening), it's well short of films such as Cinderella ($67.9 million opening), which online ticket retailer Fandango.com reported Dumbo was outpacing in advance ticket sales.

Looking ahead, Dumbo did receive an "A-" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which were 53% female and 54% were 25 years of age or older. That said, looking at Disney's other live action reimaginings, the average multiplier is 3.2x, which would suggest Dumbo is on its way to a domestic performance around $145 million. Given the reported $170 million budget, that puts a lot of heavy lifting on the international market.

Internationally, Dumbo debuted day-and-date in all markets globally with an estimated $71 million, which includes France, Italy, Spain, Russia, UK, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico along with being the #1 western release in China. Leading the way was a $10.7 million opening in China followed by the UK ($7.4m), Mexico ($7.2m), Russia ($4.4m), Italy ($3.8m), France ($3.6m), Spain ($3.6m), Brazil ($2.5m), Japan ($2.4m) and Australia ($2.1m).

Universal's Us dipped -53% in its second weekend, which is below Mojo's aggressive forecast, but pretty much right on par with what should be expected for a genre film of this sort. The film's $33.6 million three-day pushed the domestic gross over $128 million in just ten days. While the film continues to pace well ahead of select, comp titles, next weekend should prove interesting as it will face some serious genre competition with the release of Paramount's Pet Sematary.

Internationally, Us added 14 additional markets and brought in an estimated $22.6 million from 60 total markets for an overseas cume that now totals $46.3 million for a worldwide tally just shy of $175 million. Among new territories, Korea led the way with a $6.9 million opening followed by Australia ($2.7m) and Russia ($1.4m). Next weekend Us will open in Italy followed by debuts in Mexico (May 3) and Japan (Aug 23).

Disney's Captain Marvel lands in fourth, dipping -40% as it begins its fourth weekend in release with an estimated $20.5 million three-day. This pushes the film's domestic gross over $353 million as it currently ranks as the eighth largest domestic release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Internationally, Captain Marvel added another $26.4 million from 54 markets, pushing the overseas total to $636.8 million and the global tally over $990 million. The film will soon top $1 billion at the global box office, becoming the seventh film in the MCU to reach that mark and the 38th film all-time.

Rounding out the top five is Sony‘s Addie. The Sony/Gingo computer-animated adventure comedy film ended up in fifth place down from last weekends fourth place finish but also had the smallest drop out of all the films in the top five dipping -12.4% as it begins its fifth weekend in release with an estimated $9.5 million three-day. This pushed the film‘s domestic gross over $287.8 million continuing its climb to $300 million while being the fourth highest grossing film by Gingo domestically.

Internationally, Addie added Mexico and Korea to its international markets and made an estimated $6,400,000 from 54 markets with $920,100 and $500,000 of that coming from Mexico and Korea respectively, pushing the overseas total to $412.3 million and the global tally over $700 million. That said, with the film's estimated $700.1 million cume, it became the very first animated film not by Disney, Fox, Blue Sky Studios, Illumination, DreamWorks, Paramount, and Universal to reach this milestone. With a Chinese release coming on April 19, a $800–850 million worldwide cume is not out of the question at this point.

Outside of the top five in sixth is Pure Flix's Unplanned. The anti-abortion drama debuted in 1,059 theaters and managed a $6.1 million ($5,745 PTA) opening weekend performance, aided by pre-release theater buyouts and previews totaling $1.5 million. The film received an "A+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which were 58% female and 70% aged 25 years or older. The performance marks the second largest debut for Pure Flix behind the $7.6 million debut for God's Not Dead 2 and they did so tapping into online advertising as the likes of Lifetime, Hallmark, HGTV and others refused to show the ads for the film. Additionally, Bleecker's Hotel Mumbai had a solid expansion into 924 theaters (+920) bringing in an estimated $3.16 million for a $3,423 per theater average.

Blecker Street's Hotel Mumbai starring Armie Hammer rounded out the top ten after having an more expanded release, bringing in $3.1 million from 924 theaters.

In limited release, IFC's Diane opened in three theaters with an estimated $27,043 ($9,014 PTA); Comedy Dynamics opened Slut in a Good Way in seven locations with an estimated $22,000 ($3,143 PTA); Magnolia's Steve Bannon documentary The Brink opened in four locations with an estimated $18,370 ($4,593 PTA); PBS's The Chaperone delivered $12,150 from two theaters ($6,075 PTA); and Greenwich's Screwball opened in 13 locations with an estimated $12,020 ($925 PTA).

Next weekend features a couple of higher profile releases including WB's release of New Line's Shazam! in over 4,100 locations alongside the latest Stephen King adaptation, Paramount's release of Pet Sematary, which is expected to debut in over 3,400 theaters. Additionally, STX will open The Best of Enemies with Sam Rockwelland Taraji P. Henson in over 1,600 theaters.