Disney has continued its hot streak over the last few months with another big budget release doing well in Australian theatres, this time through a cinematic icon in Toy Story 4.
The fourth installment of Pixar’s original feature film has lapped the competition making almost four times more than any other film this past weekend.
Animation is a recurring theme of the Australian box office this weekend with The Secret Life of Pets 2 making its debut in the number two spot after also enjoying a strong release.
Disney also occupied the number four spot this week as Aladdin has continued its strong returns during its fifth week of release bringing its overall total to $29.22m.
Two new entries mean that two films have slipped out of the top five over the weekend, including John Wick 3 which finally ended its top five run after six weeks and making $14.52m. The other film to fall was X-Men: Dark Phoenix which only lasted two weeks in the top five and had a second weekly decline over 60%, with its total now sitting at $5.08m.
One notable new release which didn’t make the top five was the latest addition to the Chucky franchise with the latest reboot of the original film Child’s Play making $806,352 in its opening weekend.
It was a big weekend for the Australian box office with an increase of 43% after making $18.27m, thanks in part to the two new entries to the top five and the staying power of films like Aladdin and Rocketman.
#1 Toy Story $8.03m
Toy Story hasn’t lost its lustre since the first film in 1995, or in the nine years since its most recent sequel with the film bringing back the signature voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen along with an ensemble cast including Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, and Joan Cusack. Despite knocking on the door of featuring in four different decades since its release, the film hasn’t lost its appeal to audiences after averaging $13,704 on 586 screens in its first weekend in theatres.
#2 The Secret Life of Pets 2 $2.07m
Almost any film, especially animation, was going to get a silver medal when going up against Toy Story in a battle of opening weekend totals, but despite the competition Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 had a very solid opening weekend, making an average of $7,404 on 280 screens which is less than half of the number that Toy Story 4 was screened on.
#3 Men in Black: International $1.89m
Despite a 51% drop off from last weekend the new incarnation of Men In Black continues to deliver strong numbers for hometown boy Chris Hemsworth, averaging $4,788 on 396 screens (the second highest).
#4 Aladdin $1.62m
After five weeks the Disney reboot is still bringing in a large audience, having a 45% decline the remake of the 1992 classic made an average of $5,904 on 275 screens.
#5 Rocketman 1.49m
After a 33% decline on its total from last weekend, the Elton John biopic continues its strong run in theatres in its fourth week of release making an average of $4,774 on 314 screens.