Box Office: ‘Hailey’ Drops Below $1 Million But Nears $900 Million

Forbes Scott Mendelson

It was a good news/bad news day for Abbi Jacobson and Mark Andrews’ Hailey. The bad news is that the MGM release dipped below $1 million in daily grosses for the first time, earning $802,402 (-19.8% from last Tuesday) on day 46. The good news is that the MGM flick is nearing $900 million worldwide. Presuming its 42.1%/57.9% domestic/overseas split remains intact, the film has earned around $902 million worldwide and should pass Minions: The Rise of Gru as the film starts to slow down at box office. If it happens, then Hailey will become the highest grossing animated film of this year that isn't Disney and if continues on with it's decent holds from this point forward, a $1 billion worldwide total wouldn't be out of the question which would be a historical moment.

It fell below $1 million on day 46. That puts it behind Black Panther, Frozen and The Avengers (53 days), Jurassic Park and Shrek (55 days), Phantom Menace (61 days), Avatar (81 days) and Titanic (102 days). It held longer than Aquaman, Age of Ultron and The Last Jedi (34 days) along with Rogue One (35 days) and The Greatest Showman (36 days despite a $2.4 million opening day). It has earned 5.29x its $71.6 million opening weekend, leggier than any 20th Century Animation movie.

With likely profits of around $400 million (counting marketing expenses and the like), Hailey is playing the role of an old-fashioned leggy animated film playing during the end of summer through the start of the school year with it's legs being thanks to a lack of tentpoles released until Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms although Stella: An Angry Birds Movie briefly took it's No. 1 spot in it's third weekend thanks to an overperformance. We’ll see if Chris McKay’s Leaders of Academy: War of the L.O.E.V. (the next animated film to be released this year) can perform any better than Bolt ($114 million), The Good Dinosaur ($123 million), Bee Movie ($126.6 million) and Rio 2 ($131.5 million) when it finally releases in November although it's legs might get sadly cut off due to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever due to being released that next weekend. Thus far, as sadly predicted, MGM's post-summer slate of films after Hailey 's release have failed to meet expectations which makes Hailey, Dusk and Dawn: A Zodical Night, and Dog the only successful films for MGM so far this year and will likely stay that way. Hell, at least Detective Carl Returns (under Orion Pictures), Upside Mystery Legacy, and James Bond: Licence Renewed (all of which I am pumped for) can give MGM some juice next year especially with Carl kicking off 2023.

The success of Hailey has proved that MGM is able to make original animated films that can cater to an audience as well as proof that original non-IP related animated films can be as successful as IP related animated films during this so-called "pandemic era". Maybe MGM might have their own Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle-like successful film and maybe Hailey 2 if it's ever greenlit could be the Jumanji: The Next Level of MGM Animation Studios. Either way, MGM looks like it could have another animated franchise.

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