Live-action ‘Dumbo’ struggles to soar at box office

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Disney’s “Dumbo” isn’t exactly taking flight at the North American box office the way its other live-action remakes of animated classics have.

The Walt Disney Co. said Sunday that the Tim Burton-directed film has earned an estimated $45 million domestically from 4,259 locations against a $170 million production budget. It’s less than half of what “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Jungle Book” and Burton’s own “Alice in Wonderland” opened to.

The remake of the 1941 animated film stars Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito. It got mixed to negative reviews from critics and currently has a middling 53 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Audiences who did turn out, however, had a different response than the critics and gave the film an A- overall, according to CinemaScore.

Disney has two other high-profile live-action remakes coming out this year in “Aladdin” (May 24) and “The Lion King” (July 19).

“Dumbo” did bump Jordan Peele’s “Us” to second place. “Us” added $33.6 million, down only 53%, bringing its domestic total to $128.2 million in its second week. The Lupita Nyong’o doppelganger movie cost only $20 million to produce.

Easing the “Dumbo” disappointment, Disney and Marvel’s “Captain Marvel” landed in third place in weekend four with an additional $20.5 million.

The teen drama/romance “Five Feet Apart” with Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson took fourth place with $6.3 million, down only 27 percent in its third week.

And the pregnancy movie “Unplanned” rounded out the top five with $6.1 million from only 1,059 theaters. It’s another success for Pure Flix, which targets the faith-based audience.