Disney’s ‘Dumbo’ isn’t exactly taking flight at the North American box office the way its other live-action remakes of animated classics have.
The Walt Disney Co said on Sunday that the Tim Burton-directed film has earned an estimated $45 million (Dh165.2 million) in North America from 4,259 locations against a $170 million production budget. It’s less than half of what ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘The Jungle Book’ and Burton’s own ‘Alice in Wonderland’ opened to.
The remake of the 1941 animated film stars Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito. It got mixed to negative reviews from critics and currently has a middling 53 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Audiences who did turn out, however, had a different response than the critics and gave the film an A- overall, according to CinemaScore.
“We think it’s a solid start,” said Cathleen Taff, Disney’s president of theatrical distribution. “We’re encouraged and hopeful with audience word of mouth.”
Internationally, ‘Dumbo’ grossed $71 million, with $10.7 million coming from China, $7.4 million from the UK and $7.2 million from Mexico.
Disney has two other high-profile live-action remakes coming out this year in ‘Aladdin’ (May 24) and ‘The Lion King’ (July 19).
“I don’t think this is a mandate against live-action remakes. But sometimes when you don’t have the reviews, it can affect it,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. “For Disney, the bar is set so high. This is just a little speed bump on what is already a spectacular year for Disney.”
‘Dumbo’ did bump Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ to second place. ‘Us’ added $33.6 million, down only 53 per cent, bringing its North American total to $128.2 million in its second week. The Lupita Nyong’o doppelganger movie cost only $20 million to produce.
“For a horror, which generally have the scariest drops in the business, ‘Us’ is really holding in there,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s good news for Jordan Peele.”
