The follow-up to 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland”, which racked up more than $1 billion during its run, stumbled out of the gate, bombing with $28.1 million and a projected $35 million over the four-day period.
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For the second year in a row, the Memorial Day box office has yielded lower-than-expected grosses for Disney, with the Mouse’s Alice: Through the Looking Glass joining the ranks of Tomorrowland as another domestic disappointment for the studio across the holiday weekend.
The US takings of Through The Looking Glass were even down on the spectacular George Clooney flop Tomorrowland, which earned $US42 million on the same Memorial Day weekend previous year.
Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. Critics haven’t been too kind to the X-Men sequel (though I found it to be as entertaining as it was flawed), but plenty of comic book movie fans still venture to the theater to see it for themselves.
Things were much bleaker for “Alice Through the Looking Glass”.
FILE – In this image released by Twentieth Century Fox, Tye Sheridan, left, and Sophie Turner appear in a scene from, “X-Men: Apocalypse”. With that said, the film should receive a considerable bump from 3D showings, and worldwide audiences should help give this an added push towards profitability. That’s a disastrous start for a film with an $170 million production budget. The superhero sequel has earned $250.8 million globally.
The James Bobin-directed Alice stars Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and Mia Wasikowska as Alice.
Captain America: Civil War and Bad Neighbours 2 both dropped fifty-three percent, with Civil War now sitting on $32.5 million after five weeks and Bad Neighbours 2 on $7.1 after four.
Its domestic failure with Alice Through The Looking Glass notwithstanding, Disney has been setting the studio pace by focusing on event films that trade on established brands.
The movie was expected to gross $61.0 million, according to analysts at Box Office, MarketWatch reports.
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Captain America: Civil Wars landed in fourth with $19.7 million over four days. X-Men: Apocalypse took in an estimated US$65 million between Friday and Sunday, 29 per cent less than initial results for its franchise predecessor.
