Box Office: MEN IN BLACK Takes the Top Spot in Another Disappointing Weekend

Read Time:3 Minute, 14 Second

I thought the debut of Dark Phoenix was bad last week, but the Men In Black managed to do even worse.

Men In Black: International, the sequel- and hopeful relaunch- to the franchise previously led by Will Smith Tommy Lee Jones, hit theaters with a dismal $28.5 million. That’s about 52% below the opening of 2012’s MIB 3. Internationally the flick did a little better with $73.7 million, for a worldwide debut of $102.2. The budget on this one was around $110 million (not including marketing costs), so I’m sure it’ll end up in the black (pun intended), but I’d be shocked if this one broke the century mark on this side of the pond.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 dropped down to number two with $23.8 million. That’s a 49% decline from its opening last week. Its at $92 million domestic. That’s less than its predecessor made on opening weekend! The first film was already at $203.4 million domestic at this point. Internationally Pets 2 is up to $154.5 million. Thankfully Illumination keeps its budgets relatively low. Pets 2 only cost $80 million before you add in marketing, so it’s going to make money, just not as much as the first one did.

Disney’s Aladdin is still holding on very well dropping only 32.3% to stay in third with $16.7 million. Aladdin‘s domestic take is now at a very healthy $263.4 million.

And we’re back to the bad news…

Dark Phoenix, the final entry in Fox’s mainline X-Men series, plummeted from first to fourth with only $9 million. That’s a drop of 72.6% from last week. Oof, that has to hurt. It’s at $51.7 million, and will be the first X-Men film not to cross $100 million at the domestic box office.

(Side note: What are the chances The New Mutants actually hits theaters in April next year, or do you think Disney will opt to just dump it onto Disney+ or Hulu?)

Rocketman, the Elton John biopic, held steady at number five with $8.8 million. It’s at $66.1 million domestic.

The other wide release this weekend was the sequel Shaft. The flick stars Richard Roundtree, John Shaft, Sr; Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft, who is Shaft Sr’s nephew; and Jesse T Usher as Samuel L’s son, JJ Shaft. I’m going to go out on a limb and say on of those “J”s is short for “John”. The film opened in sixth place with $8.3 million. Apparently Shaft is not as bad a motherf***er as he used to be. Also, why do they just keep calling the sequels Shaft? There’s never a subtitle or a Roman numeral.

That’s it for this week. I expect the news next week to be much better as it will see the release of Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4.

Let us know what you thought of this week’s box office in the comments below.

Here’s the full top ten for the weekend:

Rank	Title	Weekend Take	Domestic Total	Worldwide Total
1.	Men In Black: International	$28,500,000	$28,500,000	$102,200,000
2.	The Secret Life of Pets 2	$23,800,000	$92,044,390	$154,544,390
3.	Aladdin	$16,712,000	$263,446,314	$724,846,314
4.	Dark Phoenix	$9,005,000	$51,767,350	$204,267,350
5.	Rocketman	$8,800,000	$66,142,725	$133,142,725
6.	Shaft	$8,315,000	$8,315,000	N/A
7.	Godzilla: King of the Monsters	$8,105,000	$93,688,172	$339,488,172
8.	John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum	$6,100,000	$148,626,905	$276,126,905
9.	Late Night	$5,136,734	$5,449,553	$5,990,027
10.	Ma	$3,610,000	$40,349,995	$51,749,995