‘Aladdin’ rakes in $112.7m on opening weekend

‘Aladdin’, Disney’s live-action remake of the 1992 hit animated film, has amassed an estimated $112.7 million at the North American box office over a four-day weekend.

The remake features Will Smith as a blue Genie and Mena Massoud, Egyptian-born Canadian actor, as the wily charmer who pretends to be a prince to catch the attention of Jasmine, portrayed by Naomi Scott.

‘Aladdin’, which had earlier projected nearly $80 million, has outperformed this to become the fifth-highest Memorial Day weekend total ever, having toppled ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’s 2014 earning of $110.4 million.

Lionsgate’s  ‘John Wick: Chapter 3’ emerged a distant second with $31 million in its second week while Disney’s fifth weekend of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ followed with $22.3 million at 3,810 locations with a domestic take of up to $803.3 million.

Disney had, in mid-2018, experienced a disappointing opening for ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’. However, it retains the record for the highest holiday box office receipts, with 2007’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ which amassed $139 million.

Although it is reported that the overall domestic box office for 2019 scaled up to $4.34 billion as of Sunday, Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore senior media analyst, said it could still topple 2018 record-setting total of $11.9 billion.

“It’s going to take patience and time to erase more of the current deficit as a series of upcoming blockbusters will take a strong stand against last year’s comps and with the massive slate on tap, including Disney’s own ‘The Lion King,’ the opportunity to pull ahead of last year is certainly not an impossible task,” he said.