Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns topped the Wednesday box office with an opening-day gross of $4.8 million from 4,090 theaters.
The Disney sequel to the 1964 classic film didn’t break any records and is instead hoping to dance to huge numbers throughout the year-end holidays as families and general moviegoers become more available. Musicals don’t tend to open to big numbers but can enjoy a long run.
Mary Poppins Returns, earning an A- CinemaScore from audiences, came in notably ahead of the $2.5 million earned by fellow musical The Greatest Showman last year on the Wednesday before Christmas but behind the $7.2 million grossed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which opened opposite Showman.
Tracking suggests Mary Poppins Returns will gross roughly $55 million for the Wednesday-Sunday stretch, and north of $70 million between Wednesday and Christmas Day.
On Friday, a slew of films enter the fray, including Warner Bros.’ Aquaman — which has already grossed north of $300 million overseas and is projected to top the Friday-Tuesday stretch with a domestic debut north of $110 million — and Paramount’s Transformers spinoff Bumblebee.
Mary Poppins Returns stars Emily Blunt as the iconic nanny alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Mortimer, Ben Whishaw and Angela Lansbury. Dick Van Dyke, who starred opposite Julie Andrews in the original pic, makes a cameo. The story, set two decades after the events of the 1964 movie, sees Mary Poppins return to take care of the Banks family.
