Aladdin is soaring at the box office and crushing the competition — Booksmart and Brightburn — despite mixed reviews on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
Aladdin, the live-action remake of the 1992 animated musical fantasy feature, based on the Arabic folktale from the One Thousand and One Nights, was theatrically released in the U.S. on Friday.
Guy Ritchie directs the musical fantasy film, written by John August, and starring Will Smith as the Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin, and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine.
Aladdin follows a street urchin who accidentally frees a genie from a lamp. The genie grants him his wishes, and he becomes a charming prince so he can court the beautiful princess Jasmine.
However, an evil sorcerer also wants the magic lamp.
How much has Aladdin earned at the box office so far?
Aladdin is doing much better at the box office than was expected. The film has grossed $86.1 million over the weekend in North America, and $121 million overseas, for a total of $207.1 million worldwide.
The movie is expected to surpass the $105 million mark in North America by the end of Memorial Day Monday.
Aladdin proves the audience matter more than the critics
Aladdin wasn’t expected to do so well, especially after the mixed reviews. It only earned a 58% approval rating based on 259 critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Its box office competitor Booksmart won universal acclaim with an approval rating of 98% based on 203 critical reviews.
With the excellent reviews, pundits expected Booksmart to be the breakout hit, but Aladdin proved that it is the audience that ultimately matters and not the critics.
Despite the excellent critical reviews, Booksmart scored a relatively modest audience approval rating of 79% by 627 moviegoers, compared with Aladdin’s 94% by more than 9,200 moviegoers.
Booksmart performed so poorly at the box office that Brightburn, which also received mixed reviews, outperformed it.
Brightburn earned only 58% approval rating based on 107 critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience approval rating of 70%.
As of Sunday, May 26, Brightburn has raked in $7.5 million in North America, compared with $6.5 million taken in by Booksmart over the weekend.