Winnie the Pooh proved no match for Ethan Hunt, and Walt Disney Co. found itself in the rare position when one of its movies did not top the box office in its opening weekend.
Disney’s “Christopher Robin,” a live-action film starring Ewan McGregor as the grown-up title character who is reunited with Winnie the Pooh and friends, earned an estimate $25 million domestically in its debut weekend, only good enough for second place.
The opening was the lowest for a Disney DIS, +1.19% film since 2016’s “The BFG” and “Pete’s Dragon,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, and marked only the second time this year — along with “A Wrinkle in Time” — that a Disney movie didn’t open at No. 1.
Disney took the disappointing debut in stride. “It’s one of our smaller films and it’s really focused on character and emotion,” Cathleen Taff, Disney’s head of distribution, told the Associated Press. “We’re happy with where it’s at and we think it’s got some runway being one of the only family options going forward.”
While Winnie the Pooh is popular worldwide, the movie is banned from opening in China, reportedly because opponents of President Xi Jinping have compared the leader to the rotund cartoon bear.
The weekend’s top spot went to “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” from Viacom Inc.’s VIA, +0.45% Paramount Pictures, for the second week in a row. The latest installment of the blockbuster action franchise, starring Tom Cruise as superspy Hunt, took in an estimated $35 million, for a two-week domestic total of $124.5 million. It’s been an even bigger hit overseas, bringing in an additional $205 million.
The Lionsgate LGF.A, -0.90% action-comedy “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, placed third in its opening weekend, with $12.4 million.
Among holdovers, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” from Comcast Corp.’s CMCSA, +2.22% Universal Pictures, placed fourth with $9.1 million. The musical is closing in on a $100 million domestic haul, and raised its global total to $230.5 million. Disney’s “Incredibles 2” also continued to roll along, picking up $5 million domestically in its eighth week, and crossed the $1 billion mark globally. About $583 million of that is from the domestic market.
