Disney’s ‘Dumbo’ Could Fly to $58 Million in Opening Weekend

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Disney’s live-action “Dumbo” is heading for as much as $58 million in North America on its opening weekend on March 29-31, early tracking showed Thursday.

The first estimates from tracking services were unusually varied, with one estimating “” to fall in the $28 million to $33 million range in its first weekend.

“Dumbo,” directed by Tim Burton and loosely inspired by the 1941 animated film, stars Danny DeVito as the owner of a struggling circus. He enlists former star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughingstock. Eva Green stars as a trapeze artist and Alan Arkin portrays a Wall Street tycoon.

Burton’s biggest hit came nine years ago for Disney on a live-action remake of its animated “Alice in Wonderland,” with more than $1 billion in worldwide box office. Since then, he directed “Dark Shadows,” “Frankenweenie,” “Big Eyes,” and “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” which took in nearly $300 million worldwide in 2016.

Disney has continued to exert its box office dominance in recent years with an array of live-action remakes of its animated films, including “The Jungle Book” and 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast,” which grossed $1.25 billion worldwide. The studio has two more such live-action remakes coming this summer with “Aladdin” launching on May 24 and “The Lion King” opening on July 19.