Box Office Watch: Onward #1 Movie In The World, But It Has A Long Road Ahead

The weekend’s box office reveals that Onward, starring Tom Holland (Spider-Man Far From Home) and Chris Pratt (Avengers Endgame) is the #1 movie in the world, but in Pixar’s catalogue it comes nowhere close. 

Onward made $39.1 million this past weekend domestically. But most Pixar movies make over $50 million in their opening weekend. Only two other films making less in the domestic box office than Onward in their opening weekends and they are Toy Story with about $29 million and The Good Dinosaur with $39 million. With that being said both made over $300 million worldwide by the end of their run. Onward made $67.1 million worldwide this weekend, but will likely go on to make more as time progresses. It did make more than twice as much as the number two box-office contender. 

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Onward With the Box Office

The animated tale of two elven brothers, Barley the oldest and Ian the youngest, going on a quest to bring back their deceased father for just 24 hours so that Ian will get the chance to meet him. The fun animated adventure combines fantasy with the modern-day world and has many tie ins to Dungeons and Dragons. Which starts with Barley’s obsession with Quests of Yore and includes their own adventure and the many obstacles they face and defeat with magic along the way (shout out to the gelatinous cube). Onward may not have the highest Pixar Rotten Tomato Score at 86% (while most Pixar films are above 90%), but it does have an “A-” on CinemaScore. 

Taking second place at the box office is Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man with $15.15 million this weekend making a total of $52.7 million in only its second weekend. An impressive feat for the low budget horror remake of HG Wells’ famous tale. With the positive word of mouth from audiences it has made a total of $98.3 million worldwide and will likely continue to this streak. 

Gavin O’Connor’s The Way Back which starred Ben Affleck took third place at the box office, but was expected to make a bigger splash than it did with only $8.2 million for the opening weekend. O’Connor’s sports drama has had critical acclaim with 87% on Rotten Tomato. 

Sonic The Hedgehog still leads Call of the Wild as they have bumped down to numbers four and five respectively. The CGI-live action adventures have held strong in the last couple of weeks with some unexpected heavy hitters. Sonic has nearly crossed $300 million worldwide and Call of The Wild is about to pass $100 million worldwide. 

Emma which had a limited release back in late February, but had its wide release this last weekend came in at number six at the box office. Making $4.8 million in the wide release domestically for a total of $6.7 domestically and $20.7 worldwide. The Jane Austin adaptation likely expected to tap into the success of Little Women and hoped for more of a hunger for this genre of adaptations of novels featuring female lead period pieces. While it isn’t breaking any records, this can be seen as a respectable opening weekend considering the scale of the film. 

Bad Boys for Life, number seven at the box office, made $3 million domestically this weekend pushing it past $400 million worldwide. Birds of Prey which dropped to eighth place at the box office is close to passing $200 million globally. Impractical Jokers: The Movie dropped to number nine brining in $1.8 million for a total of $9.7 million domestically. The Japanese Manga movie My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising fell from fourth to tenth place brining in $1.52 million for a total of $12.68 million in the United States.

One thing that must be taken into account is COVID-19 aka Coronavirus which has kept people in their homes and away from crowds. It is impossible to account for the exact monetary impact this had on Onward and other movies this past weekend and will have in weeks to come, but it definitely did have an impact. With the virus spreading more and more across the globe and even more cases popping up in the United States people don’t want to go to a crowded movie theater. This will continue to have an impact for however long the virus is active.

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN