As expected, it was the remake of the roar heard round the world that topped the box office again. The Lion King held onto #1, but it didn't exactly hold the strongest either. The remake of the 1994 classic fell 61% to $75.5 million, for a still-huge $350.8 million gross in 10 days. That passes Aladdin's $340 million domestic gross so far in just two weekends. Overseas, the film is rapidly approaching $1 billion, with already over $600 million overseas picked up with still a lot of gas in the tank. I personally would not be surprised if this reached $1.3 billion at least worldwide. And despite the split reactions from critics and audiences, it appears audience appetite for Disney remakes seems to be stronger than ever.However, the weekend's big new release didn't cower in the face of Disney's blockbuster. Sony scored a nice-sized win with Quentin Tarantino's latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The R-rated period piece earned a strong $40.4 million (strong $11,028 per-venue average). This is the biggest unadjusted domestic debut for Tarantino to date, ahead of 2009's Inglorious B**t***s ($38 million). The late-July release date proved wise, as there's been no real options for older adults in theaters this summer. That plus Tarantino and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt led to a strong turn-out. On a budget of $90 million, the film earned a slightly mixed "B" CinemaScore. The film outperformed Sony's $30 million forecast, and landed in line with analysts $40-50 million predictions.
Sony also took third place with its superhero hit (of course, Marvel helped) Spider-Man: Far From Home. The sequel was off 43% in its fourth frame to $12.2 million, for a strong $344.5 million pick-up in 27 days, along with $1.036 billion worldwide. Far From Home seems likely to finish close to Captain Marvel ($1.13 billion) among recent films. Domestically, its' passed Spider-Man: Homecoming's $334 million final gross, and should find some more stability in August.
Toy Story 4 followed with another solid hold, off 37% to $9.9 million. The latest Pixar blockbuster has earned a huge $395.6 million, and looks likely to pass Toy Story 3's unadjusted $415 million final gross in the next two to three weeks. Its' passed $900 million worldwide, and seems likely to join Aladdin and (sure to be) The Lion King in the billion dollar club.
Crawl seems to be a rare thriller to benefit from word-of-mouth, as the disaster horror was off just 34% in its third frame to $4 million. The well-received flick is at a solid $31.5 million in 17 days, and is running very close to 47 Meters Down ($32.4 million) through the same point. Yesterday also continued to play strong, off 40% in its fifth frame to $3 million. Universal's sleeper musical hit has earned a very good $63.3 million in one month of release.
In its 10th weekend in the list, Aladdin was off just 32% to $2.8 million, for a strong $345.9 million gross in 70 days. And of course, I've already mentioned that it passed $1 billion this week. Meanwhile, Disney's lone stinker of the list, Fox release Stuber, continued its quick decline. The R-rated comedy was down 59% to $1.7 million, for a weak $20.1 million gross in 17 days with very little to go. Nearing the end of its run, Annabelle Comes Home was off 40% to $1.6 million, for a decent $69.7 million gross in five weeks of release, along with another $140 million overseas.
In 135 locations, critically-adored dramedy The Farewell earned 10th place with a very good $1.55 million (strong $11,510 per-venue average). The Awkwafina film should expand further over the coming weeks as word-of-mouth spreads.
And that's about it. Next weekend the Fast and Furious franchise returns (well, sorta) with spin-off Hobbs and Shaw. Universal will hope this will get them in the billion dollar club this year. But will it succeed in what's been a Disneyfied summer? I will have a predictions post on Thursday. Hope all has a great week! :)
