Box Office Update: Audiences Growing Tired of Yeti Animations?

It’s Monday, and we can reveal that Abominable came in with a total of $21 million over the weekend. What does this mean? Well, it’s thought that Pearl Studio and DreamWorks spent around $75 million, so early signs are that box office revenues will exceed this amount. What’s more, the movie hasn’t even been released in China yet. On the other hand, there’s some bad news;

• With inflation in mind, Abominable has the second-lowest opening weekend of any DreamWorks animation. Unfortunately, only Sinbad had a poorer opening weekend when it took $15 million back in 2003.

• As the third animated featured based around a yeti in the past year or so, it seems audiences have grown tired of the whole theme. In just over twelve months, we’ve also had Missing Link from Laika and Smallfoot from Warner Bros.

Will the film improve as the weeks go on? Experts think it might for Universal, and it all comes down to who fronted the money for production. According to reports, Universal were responsible for only 40% of the budget.

A Wider Problem in Cinema?

With these numbers in mind, it’s fair to say that Abominable didn’t and probably won’t compete with How to Train Your Dragon or Kung Fu Panda, two of the best animations in recent years from DreamWorks. However, it’s not just the film to blame, it could be a shift in the entire industry.

While kids and parents alike once looked forward to new DreamWorks toons, they’re no longer causing the sensation they once did. These days, both live-action originals and animated films are having an incredibly difficult time breaking out. If we remember back to Monsters vs Aliens, this is a movie that took close to $60 million in the opening weekend alone. Meanwhile, even something like The Croods was able to rake in nearly $45 million back in 2013.

Why the change? For many, it comes down to the growing power of Hulu and Netflix. At one time, taking a child to a theatre would kill some time and keep them smiling for a while. Now, parents can achieve the same effect by putting some episodic shows on the TV thanks to these streaming services. Other films that have failed to break include Angry Birds 2 and The LEGO Movie 2.

Other Box Office News

Elsewhere, Judy, the biographical drama film about Judy Garland, earned an estimated $3.1 million from the opening weekend. For Ad Astra, it has now reached $35 million domestically. However, the strongest performance has been abroad. Away from the US, the film has earned nearly $55 million.

In between Abominable in first and Ad Astra in fifth this week, American audiences enjoyed Downton Abbey, Hustlers, and It: Chapter Two. With this in mind, the latter is now pushing $200 million. Also, The Lion King is worth a mention as it sits on $540 million domestically and $1.1 billion abroad.