It’s called counter-programing, but opening against Toy Story 4 in a crowded box office was nothing short of dangerous. Orion took a huge risk in opening their Child’s Play (read our review) remake against the Disney franchise that also follows several weeks of genre rollouts that include that of Godzilla, BrightBurn, The Dead Don’t Die, Ma and genre-lite films like John Wick 3.
No matter, Chucky held his own and managed to take the second spot in the box office for an opening weekend of $14.05M domestic. This exceeds early tracking, but also comes in on the low end of more recent expectations that pegged it as high at $20M. Still, the $14M opening is strong for Orion, who saw their The Prodigy flicker out after several weeks at just $14.8M.
Domestically, the expectation now is that Child’s Play should bring in somewhere between $30M-$40M in its full run. With a $10M reported budget, Chucky’s reboot is a success with any international take and all home video considered gravy. For those who enjoyed the new Child’s Play, I would go all-in on expectations of a sequel.
In Lars Klevberg’s modern take on the horror classic, a mother (Aubrey Plaza) gives her son (Gabriel Bateman) a Buddi doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. Mark Hamill is the new voice of Chucky.
Other interesting numbers from around the box office include Blumhouse’s Ma topping $50M worldwide, John: Wick Chapter 3 is working its way towards a global take of $300M, and Warner Bros.’ underperforming Godzilla: King of the Monsters is desperately fighting for $350M worldwide. I have no idea what expectations were on Focus Features’ The Dead Don’t Die, but it’s currently riding $4M domestic and $7M globally. It’s also in less theaters than the bigger films and may be considered a specialty release. I couldn’t even speculate as to what the numbers mean for them.
Next week is Annabelle Comes Home, which will also take on box office champion Toy Story 4. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it won’t win the box office either, but should still perform stronger than that of Child’s Play for New Line Cinema. I never thought I’d see the day where horror could compete in the summer box office. Wild times.
