Despite A Flop From Warner Bros., Animation Continued To Show Strength At U.S. Box Office

Another weekend, another animated film at the top of the U.S. box office.

Disney’s musical Moana 2 held the no. 1 in the U.S. for the third weekend in a row, with an estimated $26.6 million. The film’s domestic total now stands at $337.5m.

Moana 2 also was the no. 1 film globally, with $57.2m from international play, lifting its foreign cume to $379.5m. Its global total is now $717m, exceeding the 2016 original’s $643.3m.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses for animated films at the box office. Warner Bros.’s The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim barely made a dent, launching in fifth place with $4.6m from 2,602 theaters. Internationally, the pic didn’t perform much better, pulling in a paltry $4m from 72 markets.

The Kenji Kamiyama-directed pic was a leftover from the film studio’s previous Toby Emmerich-led administration and WB did little to promote it. Produced in Japan, its production was led by Warner Bros. Animation, which typically deals with tv animation and direct-to-video, though the unit has handled a few features in the past, including Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.

More successful was Trafalgar Releasing’s limited release of the remastered 2003 project Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. The release grossed an impressive $2.3m from 641 locations. A majority of the film’s gross came from its Thursday night launch.

Directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and supervised by recently-departed anime and manga legend Leiji Matsumoto (Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999, Space Pirate Captain Harlock), Interstella 5555 is essentially a series of music videos set to Daft Punk’s iconic Discovery album.

Gints Zilbalodis’s Oscar-contending Flow earned $374,000 from its second weekend of expanded release in 377 theaters. The Sideshow/Janus films release has now grossed $1.3m in the U.S.