'Aladdin' soars above the competition in opening weekend

Disney's "Aladdin" rode a magic carpet to the top of the box office over the holiday weekend.

The live-action remake beat expectations, pulling in an estimated $86.1 million.

"Aladdin" is expected to cross the $100-million mark by the end of Monday.

The musical-adventure, directed by Guy Ritchie, stars Will Smith as the Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine and draws heavily on the music and story of the 1992 animated film (the top earner of that year).

"We're delighted," said Cathleen Taff, Disney's president of theatrical distribution. "Between the fun action-adventure and spectacular music combined with the cast, which is so charming and has such great chemistry together, we've hit something that fans are embracing and walking out of wanting to share with others."

Audiences, who were 54% women and 51% families, gave the remake an A CinemaScore, which is much more promising for its continued success than the tepid critical reviews. The studio also got another metric with the newly launched verified Rotten Tomatoes audience rating. Over 7,000 people rated the film to give it a 93%.

"I'm so pleased that Rotten Tomatoes launched this, it means people bought the ticket. You can trust that people giving you the score actually sat through the movie," Taff said. "We couldn't ask for a better barometer of fan reception."

With an international gross of $121 million, "Aladdin" has already earned over $207 million globally. It cost a reported $183 million to produce.

In its second weekend, "John Wick: Chapter 3" earned almost $25 million.

"Avengers: Endgame" added another $16.8 million to its box office haul.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of this station.