'Aladdin' rakes in riches: Will Smith's live-action Disney remake soars to $207.1M globally

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Disney’s new extended ‘Aladdin’ trailer is here.
The Walt Disney Studios

LOS ANGELES – Moviegoers have voted with their dollars and chosen the familiar over the new this Memorial Day weekend.

Disney’s live-action remake of “Aladdin” crushed the competition at the box office, which included two new R-rated movies that opened as counterprogramming to the family film: The critically acclaimed teen comedy “Booksmart” and the superhero/horror movie mashup “Brightburn.”

But the strategy didn’t quite work. “Aladdin” did better than expected, grossed $86.1 million to take the top spot in North America, according to studio estimates on Sunday. It’s likely to pass $100 million by Monday; by comparison, the others didn’t even break $10 million. Already, “Aladdin” has earned $207.1 million worldwide.

“Aladdin,” directed by Guy Ritchie, stars Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott and draws heavily on the music and story of the 1992 animated film.

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“We’re delighted,” says Cathleen Taff, Disney’s president of theatrical distribution. “We’ve hit something that fans are embracing and walking out of wanting to share with others.”

Audiences, who were 54% women and 51% families, gave the remake an A grade on CinemaScore, which is much more promising for its continued success than the tepid critical reviews. More than 7,000 moviegoers weighed in on “Aladdin” using Rotten Tomatoes’ new verified audience rating, 93% of them positively.

“You can trust that people giving you the score actually sat through the movie,” Taff says. “We couldn’t ask for a better barometer of fan reception.”

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“John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,” now in its second weekend, placed second with $24.4 million, “Avengers: Endgame” took third with $16.8 million, and “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” landed in fourth with $13.3 million.

Original films are struggling to attract significant audiences. The modestly budgeted horror movie “Brightburn” opened in fifth with $7.5 million. The James Gunn-produced film starring Elizabeth Banks puts a sinister spin on the Superman myth and has received mediocre reviews from critics.

A surprise for many, however, was “Booksmart,” which debuted in sixth with only $6.5 million, despite excellent reviews and steady buzz from its South By Southwest film festival debut. Some had thought this would be a summer breakout hit.

Olivia Wilde directed the film that stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein as two teenage overachievers who decide to go to a party on their last night of high school.

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Olivia Wilde talks about her high school years and making her directing debut on the coming-of-age film “Booksmart.”
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

But despite all the hype, including celebrity endorsements on social media from Natalie Portman and Ryan Reynolds, audiences just didn’t turn out for “Booksmart” in noteworthy numbers.

Wilde tried to change the course with a Twitter plea.

“Anyone out there saving @Booksmart for another day, consider making that day TODAY,” Wilde wrote Saturday. “We are getting creamed by the big dogs out there and need your support. Don’t give studios an excuse not to green-light movies made by and about women.”

Those who did make to “Booksmart” were mostly women (61%) and under the age of 35 (74%). And the target 17-to-34 age group gave a more favorable exit score (an A) than audiences overall, who gave it a B-plus.

“People are in a popcorn mood,” Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian says. “Films trying to be more introspective and fresh are having a tougher time getting their head above water.”

Final numbers are expected Tuesday.

Contributing: Kim Willis

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6. “Amour” (2012) • Directed by: Michael Haneke • Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert • This French tear-jerker is about two former musicians and piano teachers, husband and wife, both in their 80s. One morning, the woman has a stroke and ends up partially paralyzed. When she gets out of the hospital, her husband promises she will never go back, and when he can no longer care for her, he tells her a story, then smothers her. He covers her body with flowers and seals the room she’s in, then imagines her washing dishes in the kitchen.    Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics34. “Interstellar” (2014) • Directed by: Christopher Nolan • Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain • In the mid-21st century, America is plagued by dust storms and crop blight, and has regressed to an agrarian society without technical innovation. A former NASA test pilot now lives on a farm with his daughter, son and father-in-law. The ex-pilot happens onto a bunker, where he finds his old NASA boss, who sends him on a mission through a wormhole in space in search of new inhabitable planets to enable the human race to survive. Decades later, after disappointments and deaths, he returns from the wormhole and he and his daughter, now an elderly woman, reunite on a space station before he goes off again into space.  Courtesy of Paramount Pictures36. “Ivan’s Childhood” (1962) • Directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky, Eduard Abalov • Starring: Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Evgeniy Zharikov • During World War II, a 12-year-old Russian boy named Ivan, whose family has been killed by the Nazis, works as a spy, crossing German lines to bring information back to the Soviets. Three Russian officers discover him and watch over him as he continues to spy, his activities interspersed with vivid dreams of his pre-war life. After the war ends, one of the officers discovers that Ivan has been captured and executed. The film ends with Ivan’s last dream, of playing with other children on the beach. Courtesy of Shore International44. “Lilya 4-Ever” (2002) • Directed by: Lukas Moodysson • Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharskiy, Pavel Ponomaryov • Abandoned by her mother, a teenage girl in a former Soviet republic turns to prostitution in her hometown. She befriends a young man whose father abuses him, and she buys him a basketball with her earnings. Another man, who becomes her boyfriend, offers her a job in Sweden. There, she is imprisoned by a pimp and raped by him and his customers. Back home, her friend kills himself. Beaten by her pimp and saddened by her friend’s death, she commits suicide, too. The film ends with her and her friend as angels, playing basketball on a rooftop.  Courtesy of Newmarket Films58. “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006) • Directed by: Guillermo del Toro • Starring: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López • This fantasy, set in a rural village in Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, is the story of a young girl who discovers an underground stone labyrinth, where she meets a faun — half-man, half-goat — who tells her that she might really be a princess of the underground realm. While her real-life stepfather, a sadistic army officer, pursues rebels in the countryside, the girl tries to prove her regal identity through a series of three increasingly difficult tasks. She succeeds, but is shot and killed by her stepfather before reappearing in the underground realm as its beloved ruler.  Courtesy of Picturehouse78. “The Green Mile” (1999) • Directed by: Frank Darabont • Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse • Based on a Stephen King novel, this fantasy-tinged prison movie centers on a long-retired prison guard’s memories of a mentally challenged convicted child murderer, John Coffey, who turned out to have mysterious healing powers. A pet mouse, a botched execution and a vision proving that Coffey is innocent are all part of the tale. Coffey is electrocuted anyway, and the guard, “infected with life” by the convict, is fated to live in sorrow into his 100s, watching his friends and family die before him.    Courtesy of Warner Bros.81. “The Killing Fields” (1984) • Directed by: Roland Joffé • Starring: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich • Dith Pran was a real-life Cambodian journalist, photographer and translator who worked with New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg during the civil war in Cambodia in the 1970s. When the communist Khmer Rouge rebels occupy the country’s capital, Pran, who was left behind and working as a forced laborer, discovers the “killing fields” scattered with the bones of millions of Cambodians murdered by the communists. Back in the U.S., Schanberg, who had remained in Cambodia as long as possible, wins awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, for his coverage of the events. In 1979, Pran escapes and is reunited with the reporter. Courtesy of Warner Bros.95. “Underground” (1995) • Directed by: Emir Kusturica • Starring: Predrag ‘Miki’ Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic • From the early days of World War II through the Cold War and into the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, two Serbian friends carouse, spy, fight, murder, fall in love, disappear and reappear. In the surrealistic conclusion, all the characters, living and dead, are reunited for a wedding feast. Courtesy of New Yorker Films97. “Up” (2009) • Directed by: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson • Starring: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger • Pixar – the Disney-owned animation studio behind “Toy Story,” “The Incredibles,” and “Finding Nemo” – is better known for its family-friendly feel-good movies than for anything sad. Nonetheless, with “Up” they produced one of the most moving animated movies of all time, as we watch protagonist Carl Fredricksen falling in love, living life and finally losing his wife, Ellie. Keeping his promise to her, he turns his house into an airship, hooks up with an eccentric explorer and ends up where the couple had always dreamed of being. Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

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