Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is dancing circles around From the World of John Wick: Ballerina at the domestic box office.
The live-action blockbuster, will top the chart for the third consecutive weekend with $33 million more or more from 4,185 theaters after clearing the $300 million milestone on Thursday. By Sunday, the pic’s North American total should be an estimated $336 million and well north of $650 million globally.
Ballerina, the first John Wick spinoff, looks to finish second with a softer-than-expected $25 million to $27 million from 3,409 venues. Ana de Armas plays the title role in the R-rated action pic, with main franchise star Keanu Reeves also making an appearance.
Three weeks ago, Ballerina was tracking to open to $35 million or more. Projections were lowered to $30 million-plus heading into the weekend and even further. The pic opened Friday in first place with an estimated $10.8 million, including $3.75 million in previews, but is expected to fall to second place on Saturday. (It’s opening day marked a low for the franchise.)
The good news: Ballerina nabbed an A- CinemaScore and strong audience scores, both on Rotten Tomatoes (94 percent) and PostTrak, so it could regain its step and have long legs.
So far, Ballerina is playing decidedly male, or 63 percent, according to PostTrak. Lionsgate and Thunder Road Films / 87Eleven Entertainment say they covered a notable chunk of the $90 million production budget with foreign sales.
Set during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the film follows Eve Macarro (de Armas), who is beginning her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma. Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus co-star, with Ian McShane and Reeves also turning up.
Directed by Len Wiseman from a script from Shay Hatten, Ballerina is based on characters by Derek Kolstad.
There’s plenty of competition when it comes to male-skewing action fare, led by Paramount and Skydance’s Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, which, like Lilo & Stitch, is enjoying a stronghold. The movie, marking Tom Cruise’s final turn in the spy franchise, looks to place third with an estimated $15 million from 3,456 locations for a domestic tally of $145.9 million and well north of $400 million globally.
After a softer-than-expected debut last weekend, Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends is falling off 57 percent or more in its sophomore outing to $8.7 million from 3,859 sites for a muted domestic tally of $35.4 million through Sunday.
New Line’s Final Destination: Bloodlines, now in its fourth weekend, looks to round out the top five, followed by the nationwide expansion of Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Phoenician Scheme, into a total of 1,678 theaters. From Focus Features and Indian Paintbrush, the specialty film is projecting a $5.7 million weekend for a 10-day cume of $6.5 million after opening in its first six locations last weekend to build word of mouth (it sported the top per-location average of the year to date, or $95,000.)
