Disney's Dumbo lands disappointing opening at US box office with $45m

Dumbo's opening fails to measure up to predecessors such as Beauty and the Beast

Disney's Dumbo is struggling to take off at the North American box office – still landing in the number one spot, but with lower numbers than expected.

The Walt Disney Co said on Sunday that the Tim Burton-directed film has earned an estimated $45m (£34.5m) domestically from 4,259 locations, against a $170m (£130m) production budget.

It's less than half of what Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book and Burton's own Alice in Wonderland opened to.

The live-action remake of the 1941 animated film, which stars Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito, got mixed to negative reviews from critics and currently has a 53 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Internationally, Dumbo grossed $71m (£54m), with $10.7m (£8.2m) coming from China, $7.4m (£5.7m) from the UK and $7.2m (£5.5m) from Mexico.

The film, which came out on 29 March in the US, was expected to top $50m (£38m) over the first three days of its release – and has now landed slightly below this prediction.

Disney has two other high-profile live-action remakes coming out this year: Aladdin is scheduled to premiere on 24 May, while The Lion King is set to hit theatres on 19 July.

Additional reporting by agencies