Fans of the DC cinematic universe should be sweating just about now. Though Justice League has continued to make money that would make most movies that don't carry the label of Marvel, DC, or Star Wars into out-and-out classics (See: Get Out), it's continuing to fall way below fiscal expectations on a movie that rumored to cost north of $300 million. Yesterday, the movie brought in $16.5 million to come in second, bringing the domestic take to $147.3 million and though it might very well be saved by its foreign box office performance -- its worldwide box office is currently at $332.3 million -- this signals that the DC cinematic universe is in need of some major retooling if it ever hopes to be a legitimate rival to Marvel.

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Image via Warner Bros.

Indeed, there's some vague sense of degradation in the fact that Justice League will almost certainly be beaten in its second frame by a Disney property, namely Pixar's Coco. The latest dispatch from the animation powerhouse came out Wednesday and has brought in an estimated $40.7 million so far, $18.6 million of which came in yesterday. It's on track to gross over $70 million over the Thanksgiving weekend, whereas Justice League is looking closer to the $60-65 million range by the end of Sunday. And unlike Zack Snyder's film, the success of Coco, a lively if predictable parable, is well-earned, spurred by curiosity and imagination in ways that most live-action movies being released in the next month simply are not.

It's certainly a welcome reprieve from the other kids movie in the top ten, Wonder, which is meant to do nothing more than make audiences cry and has therefore become a minor hit, arriving in third place with $8.7 million on Friday. Another deserving blockbuster, Thor: Ragnarok, continues to make bank, bringing in $6.6 million on Friday to push the total domestic take to $267.3 million and the global box office to a staggering $759.2 million. Finally, in fifth, is Kenneth Branagh's stylish yet hollow Murder on the Orient Express, which brought in $5.2 million on Friday to bring its cumulative domestic toll up to $66.4 million and its foreign box office up to $167.1 million. Another Poirot mystery adaptation, namely Death on the Nile, is already in the works from Branagh and the announcement of the sequel no doubt was eased by the popularity of the movie overseas. And yet, things don't seem that simple for Justice League, which might very well herald a full reversal in the way DC films are made, produced, and written in the future.

Here's your top five at the box office for Friday:

Title

Friday Domestic BO

Total Domestic BO

1. ‘Coco’

$18,600,000

$40,773,000

2. ‘Justice League’

$16,500,000

$147,316,643

3. ‘Wonder’

$8,730,000

$55,860,202

4. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’

$6,641,000

$267,318,394

5. ‘Murder on the Orient Express’

$5,230,000

$66,476,517

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Image via Lionsgate
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Image via 20th Century Fox
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