Exceeding expectations by a bit, Sony/Columbia's Men in Black: International easily took the top spot at the domestic box office in its weekend debut. The fourth film in the sci-fi/action/comedy franchise was projected as tallying $26+ million and it wound up topping $28 million. That's little consolation for what was intended to be a summer blockbuster. On the international front, where you'd think MiB:I would do a little better, the film took in $74.7 million and debuted at #1 in roughly two-thirds of the movie's markets. Co-stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson will likely have to head back to the MCU to see such numbers again because Disney's the only game in town when it comes to reliable box office boons.

Most of the weekend's Top 10 is comprised of sequels from established franchises. We've got everything from the animated antics of The Secret Life of Pets 2, to another telling of the Dark Phoenix saga, a third-generation Shaft, more worthwhile time spent with John Wick, and a mega-monster beat 'em up in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Even Disney's magical movie Aladdin is a live-action redo of an animated classic. So it's refreshing to see that the excellent Elton John biopic Rocketman is seeing some love with a solid hold in its third weekend and that audiences are checking out Amazon's Late Night in its theatrical expansion. There's even another success story for Blumhouse with Ma, a micro-budget horror movie making relative bank with over $40 million earned on a $5 million budget; the studio can do this forever with returns like that. On the flip side of that model is the ~$350 million budget for Avengers: Endgame, which is now just under $50 million short of overtaking Avatar for the top worldwide box office spot ever.

Here's a look at how the Top 10 from this weekend's box office stacked up:

Rank

Title

Weekend

Total

1

Men in Black International

$28,500,000

$28.5

2

The Secret Life of Pets 2

$23,800,000

$92.0

3

Aladdin (2019)

$16,712,000

$263.4

4

Dark Phoenix

$9,005,000

$51.8

5

Rocketman

$8,800,000

$66.1

6

Shaft (2019)

$8,315,000

$8.3

7

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

$8,105,000

$93.7

8

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

$6,100,000

$148.6

9

Late Night

$5,136,734

$5.4

10

Ma

$3,610,000

$40.3

men-in-black-international-final-poster