LOS ANGELES (REUTERS/VARIETY.COM) - Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Forky are still ruling the box office. Despite solid debuts from newcomers Annabelle Comes Home and Yesterday, Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 4 easily dominated North America.
The fourth chapter in the animated series collected another US$58 million (S$78.46 million), boosting its domestic haul to a huge US$237 million.
After two weekends in theatres, Toy Story 4 already the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year. The first three spots - Avengers: Endgame (US$841 million), Captain Marvel (US$428 million), and Aladdin (US$306 million) - all belong to Disney as well.
Warner Bros. and New Line's Annabelle Comes Home, the seventh installment in the Conjuring Universe, had the best showing among new releases. The supernatural horror film debuted in second place, earning US$20 million over the weekend and US$31 million since launching on Wednesday. While those ticket sales represent a franchise-low debut for the Conjuring series, but its low production budget still marks a win for the studio. Gary Dauberman wrote and directed Annabelle Comes Home, which stars Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga and Mckenna Grace.
In a close third, Universal and Working Title's Yesterday launched with US$17 million from 2,603 venues. The musical romantic comedy follows an aspiring songwriter (newcomer Himesh Patel) who, after a freak accident, discovers he's the only person who remembers the Beatles. Yesterday was directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting) and written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually). Rights to the catalogue of John, Paul, George and Ringo's greatest hits doesn't come cheap, so Universal is hoping Yesterday has a long and winding road in theaters.
A little farther down on domestic box office charts is Avengers: Endgame, which returned to the top 10 after Disney re-released the blockbuster with an unfinished deleted scene that didn't make it into the initial film. The special screening, which also included a video introduction from director Anthony Russo and a sneak peek at Spider-Man: Far From Home, is in a bid to take down Avatar as the biggest movie of all time. Avengers: Endgame added another US$5.5 million in its 10th weekend of release, almost a 200 per cent jump in ticket sales.
That brings its box office receipts to US$841 million in North America and US$2.76 billion worldwide. That puts Marvel's juggernaut roughly US$38 million behind "Avatar," which has remained the highest-grossing film of all time for nearly a decade with US$2.78 billion in global ticket sales.
In fourth place, Disney's Aladdin generated US$9.3 million in its sixth weekend in theaters, pushing it past the US$300 million mark at the domestic box office. The live-action remake has now earned US$306 million in North America and US$568 million internationally.
Rounding out the top five is Universal and Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets 2 with US$7 million.
In other box office milestones, Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum crossed US$300 million worldwide. The Keanu Reeves-led sequel picked up US$3 million this weekend, taking its domestic tally to US$161 million.
