Disney just couldn't wait to be box office king again. And out of all three remakes they released this year, this was the one audiences were waiting for (even though Aladdin was a resounding success). The Lion King earned an astounding $185 million in its debut (huge $39,153 per-venue average from a record 4,725 locations), beating Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II's $169 million debut to become the biggest opener ever for the month of July. It also edged Incredibles 2 for the ninth-biggest opening weekend in history (Disney now owns 12 of the Top 13 biggest opening weekends in history). The truth is, despite mixed critical reception, audiences familiar with the original truly showed up in force this weekend. Families, millennials, and other generations came out. And audiences seemed to love what they saw, giving the movie an "A" CinemaScore. There are a couple of family movies hitting theaters in August, but overall the runway is pretty clear through Labor Day for this king to keep ruling.Overseas, Lion King also was huge. After a $54 million launch in China last week, it added another $269 million to its coffers this weekend, for a huge $531 million worldwide gross in just 10 days. Disney can likely count on another billion dollar hit here, with forecasts ranging as high as $1.3-1.4 billion for this installment. Disney was expecting around $150 million, while analysts' predictions ranged anywhere between $140 and $200 million stateside. The budget was reportedly $260 million, one of the most expensive of recent memory.
For the weekend, Lion King took up 72% of the weekend's business. But that doesn't mean there aren't other films playing. Spider-Man: Far From Home took second place, and was down 54% in its third frame to $21 million. Through 20 days of release, the sequel has earned a strong $319.7 million. It will pass Homecoming's $334 million final gross next week. Worldwide, its' at $960 million, and will become Sony's second movie in history to pass $1 billion in the next week.
Another film that might hit the $1 billion mark is Toy Story 4. Disney and Pixar's latest megahit held well in the face of stablemate Lion King, off just 30% to $14.6 million. In one month of release, the supposed franchise finale has earned a strong $375.5 million, and is now running $14 million ahead of Toy Story 3 through the same point. 4 has also earned $860 million worldwide to date, with more to go (and Germany still to open).
Last weekend's horror opener Crawl fell 50% in its sophomore frame to $6 million. However, while $23.8 million in 10 days might not look so great on paper, it looks really nice in the face of a $13.5 million budget. Meanwhile, Yesterday is proving to be one of the summer's most leggy hits. The Beatles-themed musical was off a light 24% to $5.1 million, for a solid $57.6 million pick-up in 24 days.
Despite Lion King's arrival, Aladdin was able to make it nine-straight weeks in the Top 10. The remake was off 38% to $3.8 million, for a huge $340 million pick-up in 63 days. It's also crawling to the $1 billion mark, with $989 million picked up so far worldwide. Meanwhile, Annabelle Comes Home was down 53% in its fourth frame to $2.7 million, for a decent $66.6 million gross in 27 days. It will hit $70 million, a respectable result, but far from spectacular.
Midsommar plunged 56% to $1.6 million, for an OK $22.5 million gross in 17 days, with not much more to go. Rounding out the list was Secret Life of Pets 2, which fell 52% to $1.5 million as it starts to head for its Blu-ray release. The sequel is at $151.6 million in seven weeks of release, and $315 million worldwide with a few markets left to open.
And that's about it. Next weekend, Quentin Tarantino returns with his latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Its' set to be a strong second place opener behind Lion King. I'll have more about this in a predictions report on Thursday. Hope all has a great week.
