Disney’s “Zootopia 2” is expected to retake the top spot from Universal/Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” with an estimated third weekend gross of $26.5 million, while becoming the third $1 billion hit of 2025.
But it’s not all good news for Disney this weekend leading up to “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” as 20th Century/Gracie Films’ “Ella McCay” is an instant box office bomb, grossing just $850,000 from 2,500 theaters on its opening day. It’s headed for an estimated $2.2 million opening weekend, which will put it outside the top 5 and below Indian action thriller “Dhurandhar,” which grossed $3.25 million from 377 theaters in its second weekend.
For Disney, “Ella McCay” is not a theatrical disaster on the level of early 2025 busts like “Snow White” or “Elio” given its reported production budget of around $35 million. Any loss the studio suffers from this film will be easily made up on the single domestic opening day of “Avatar 3.”
But given that this film is a mature PG-13 comedy from James L. Brooks, master of a bygone era of adult films like “Broadcast News” and “Also Good as It Gets,” it’s another demonstration of how difficult it is for such films aimed at older audiences to perform at the box office, especially when they are poorly reviewed like “Ella McCay” with a 23% Rotten Tomatoes score and a B- on CinemaScore.
More to come…
