Abominable performed more or less when in with where expectations had it this weekend, opening to $20 million, Box Office Mojo is reporting. That was slightly above where tracking had it, beating the $18 million projection by roughly $2 million.
Unlike How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Universal never seemed to give Abominable a full marketing push in the states. Sure, the trailers were fine at selling another film in that vein (complete with beautiful animation), but they never treated the movie like an “event,” nor was TV advertising ever especially prominent. This is not to say that Abominable’s numbers thus far are alarming by any stretch–it was big enough to top the box office charts this week–but it does feel like some money might’ve been left on the table here, especially since it saw one of DreamWorks Animation’s smaller openings to date.
What’s next for the bumble? It’s hard to say. Abominable fared well with critics and audiences, but The Addams Family is only two weeks away, and that movie has the “brand name” factor going for it, not to mention much broader comedy in the previews. In other words, Abominable doesn’t have the family market to itself for very long, which could make legs difficult.
Still, Universal’s focus isn’t on America, but on China, where they’re hoping the movie will be huge. Abominable was a co-production between DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studios (formally Oriental DreamWorks), with the studio banking on the film connecting internationally like the Kung Fu Panda series did. Abominable opens in China on October 1st.