Dragons rule the box office again as 28 Years Later munches on a solid start and Elio craters

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Previously, a new movie from Pixar Animation Studios used to be met with enthusiasm and would quickly sell out in cinemas. However, this past weekend’s release of Elio proved to be a disappointing flop, suggesting that Pixar may no longer hold the box office appeal it once did. Let me clarify, though, that I am referring to recent times.

Focusing on the top-ranked film in America for the second consecutive weekend, “How to Train Your Dragon” earned $37 million during its second week, marking a 56% decrease compared to last week. After impressive earnings from weekday screenings, boosted notably by Juneteenth, the total earnings since its debut now stand at $160.48 million over ten days. This figure surpasses the lifetime domestic gross of “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” and is expected to exceed the domestic earnings of “How to Train Your Dragon 2” within the next few days. In other words, this movie continues to be a huge success.

Despite not quite reaching the hype predicted by its first trailer, the release of 28 Years Later was nonetheless impressive for an R-rated sequel to a zombie movie that came out 18 years after the original. This weekend, it grossed $30 million, surpassing the total domestic earnings of 28 Weeks Later and soon expected to exceed the lifetime gross of 28 Days Later.

28 Years Later, with its intense violence and somber atmosphere, might not have been as widely popular as Final Destination: Bloodlines, but it marked a strong beginning for the third installment of a series long absent from screens since the 1980s. The lack of numerous sequels and spin-offs based on 28 Days Later since 2007 gave this new chapter a unique appeal. Fans were eager to revisit the British apocalypse, following up on the storyline presented in 28 Weeks Later, making it easy to sell tickets without needing to persuade or reassure viewers that the franchise was back on track.

Finishing in third place was the film “Elio“, which earned just $21 million upon its release, marking the lowest domestic opening for any Pixar movie ever. Previously, “Toy Story” from November 1995 held this record with a debut of $29 million and it set the stage by premiering on a Wednesday, which depleted demand. To put things into perspective, here are some computer-animated movies that “Elio” opened below:

Rise of the Guardians ($23.77 million)

The Emoji Movie ($24.53 million)

Gnomeo & Juliet ($25.35 million)

The Bad Guys ($23.95 million)

Open Season ($23.6 million)

Meet the Robinsons ($25.1 million)

The Garfield Movie ($24.01 million)

Smallfoot ($23.05 million)

In my experience, I noticed that Elio’s marketing was more prevalent than other Disney animated films from the 2020s such as Strange World and Wish. This included McDonald’s tie-in ads, billboards, concession stand items in movie theaters, and so on. However, this extensive marketing didn’t propel Elio to the box office success of classic Pixar movies. In fact, it debuted 21% lower than Elemental’s $29.6 million opening two years ago. Elio encountered several challenges, including the difficulty in selling sci-fi animation to family audiences (with exceptions like WALL-E and Monsters vs. Aliens), and its promotional campaign not resonating strongly with adults.

Could we say instead: Is the success of Elio another nail in the coffin for original animated movies? Not so fast. While it’s true that audiences have been conditioned by studios over the past 15 years to expect franchise films as “proper” theatrical entertainment, selling original productions to the general public will undoubtedly be a tough task. Despite receiving an A CinemaScore and not being launched by Illumination on the 4th of July, Elio still has a chance to stick around in the marketplace. However, it’ll need legs even stronger than those of Elemental or The Greatest Showman to approach profitability.

Despite the release of a new Disney movie, Lilo & Stitch saw a decrease of 38% this week, earning an additional $9.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $386.74 million. Mission: Impossible – Fallout is maintaining strong momentum after its debut, with a weekend drop of only 38%, resulting in another $6.55 million and a domestic total of $178.37 million so far. If it continues at this pace, it should reach the $200 million mark domestically within two more weeks. Materialists sparked some online conversation after its opening weekend, but its 52% decline in its second frame is typical for romantic-dramas. It earned another $5.81 million, now totaling $23.92 million over ten days of domestic release. Ballerina is experiencing a steep decline with a 54% drop in its third weekend, earning an additional $4.53 million and reaching a domestic total of $51.18 million.

1. In its current phase, “The Karate Kid: Legends” is struggling to maintain a presence in the market, dropping another 54% this week and earning just $2.4 million, bringing its total domestic earnings to $49.37 million. On the other hand, “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” in its sixth weekend, is nearing the end of its domestic run but managed to collect an additional $1.9 million, raising its total domestic revenue to $134.8 million. Completing the top ten this week was “Kuberra,” taking home $1.75 million.

Over the third weekend of its nationwide run, “The Phoenician Scheme” saw a decline of 56%, earning an extra $1.4 million, bringing its domestic total to $16.2 million. Meanwhile, “The Life of Chuck” dipped 57% this week, adding another $1.005 million to its tally, amounting to a 17-day haul of $4.67 million. The other major new release, “Bride Hard”, opened in 1,165 theaters but managed only $932,000. With minimal marketing efforts and poor buzz, this film failed to gain traction.

In its debut outside wide theaters, the movie titled “Sinners” earned an additional $820,000 from 536 screens. Did you know that the theater average it achieved this week surpassed the weekly averages of “Bloodlines, Phoenician Scheme“, and “Karate Kid“. As a result, “Sinners” has now accumulated a total of $277.25 million. On the other hand, “Thunderbolts*“, during its eighth week in theaters, saw a 57% drop and collected another $440,000, taking its overall earnings to $189.51 million.

This weekend, Kino Lorber introduced two fresh arthouse films to theaters. The 15th anniversary re-release of “Dogtooth” earned $10,126 across four cinemas, resulting in an average of $2,531 per theater. Simultaneously, the new documentary titled “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone, Anymore” brought in $6,020 from a single theater location.

This past weekend, the highest-grossing films earned a total of $120.6 million, which feels more like a tranquil before-the-storm moment, considering that movies like F1, Jurassic World Rebirth, and Superman are ready to take flight soon. Unfortunately, the disappointing box office performance of Elio‘s debut accounts for nearly all of this low figure. If the film had managed an additional $15 million (comparable to the opening of The Wild Robot), the market would be in a much healthier position.

For a late June weekend in 2025 (June 20-22), the movie frame was notably lower than typical for this time of year. In fact, it was the 25th weekend of the year and recorded the lowest earnings since June 2005 when Batman Begins held the number one spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row (before adjusting for inflation). Comparatively, the 25th weekends of the 2020s saw a decrease in revenue by about 10% compared to June 24-26, 2022 when Elvis was the box office leader. Moreover, this frame saw an improvement of at least 13% over the June 23-25, 2023 weekend when Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse reclaimed the top spot in the domestic box office.

2024’s June overall has seen a decline compared to previous Junes due to the absence of a hit movie similar to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Toy Story 4,” or the “Jurassic World” trilogies. As of now, the total gross for the month stands at $622.36 million and it’s unlikely that June will surpass $900 million. Movies like “Ballerina” and “Elio” have contributed to this low performance, but there are several big blockbusters scheduled for July to boost the box office. Furthermore, May 2025 has been strong enough to alleviate some of the pressure. Nevertheless, the underperformance in June serves as a reminder for studios to move away from relying on old franchises like “Karate Kid” and “John Wick,” and encourages Disney to improve their marketing strategies for new Pixar releases.

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2025-06-23 16:15