Weekend Box Office (July 19 - 21, 2019)
THIS WEEKEND Dominating the marketplace with the ninth largest opening of all-time was Disney's latest remake The Lion King which towered over the competition bowing to an eye-popping $185M accounting for 75% of all spending on the top ten movies this weekend. Simba and friends averaged a sturdy $39,153 from a record 4,725 locations including premium formats like IMAX and 4DX. Disney now owns 12 of the 13 biggest opening weekends ever.
A beloved film from 25 years ago, the Lion King brand has remained wildly popular over the years with stage productions, re-releases, TV cartoons and more. After The Jungle Book, Jon Favreau was given the director's chair for this PG-rated project and assembled an impressive cast that included Beyonce, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Seth Rogen and more who also carry immense marketing strength on social media.
Reviews were mixed, but like Aladdin earlier this summer, this was not a film made for movie critics. It was made primarily for today's generation of young people who can enjoy their own updated version of a popular classic. And the target audience is liking the film with the CinemaScore coming in with an A grade. After only three days, it's already the sixth highest grossing movie of the 2019.
Among the other box office records, Lion King generated the best debut ever for the month of July and for all PG-rated films. It was also bigger than any opening from Pixar's library of kidpic hits. Other studios avoided releasing anything big this weekend and even the next two frames only have one wide opening each. With limited competition over the next few weeks, reaching the $500M domestic barrier is certainly possible.
Lion King did spectacular business around the globe with a huge $269.4M this weekend from 52 markets for a massive $454.4M weekend. Add in the early grosses from China which opened a week ago and the overseas cume is now $346M putting the global gross at $531M. Despite a sharp slowdown in China (which stands at $97.5M in 10 days), the behemoth is well on its way to smashing the billion dollar mark in no time. The Mouse House will soon have five megahits this year in ten-digit territory with Frozen and Star Wars sequels still to come in the fourth quarter. A $10 billion year could be in the cards.
Getting bumped to the runner-up spot after two weeks on top, Spider-Man: Far From Home collected an estimated $21M in its third weekend falling 54%. The domestic cume rose to $319.7M and in one more week it will surpass the $334.2M final of Spider-Man: Homecoming from two summers ago. A final of around $390M may result.
Sliding only 30% despite a fellow Disney juggernaut kidpic entering the jungle was Pixar's Toy Story 4 with an estimated $14.6M. The toon fourquel has now climbed to impressive heights including $375.5M in North America, $483.9M overseas, and $859.4M worldwide. Hitting one billion is likely.
Alligator flick Crawl dropped 50% to an estimated $6M putting Paramount at $23.8M to date. Universal's Yesterday followed with an estimated $5.1M, down just 24%, for a solid $57.6M overall. A final near the $75M mark seems likely making it among the top-grossing original movies of the entire year.
The buddy comedy Stuber fell 51% in its second weekend to an estimated $4M giving Fox just $16.1M overall. Still playing well with kids was Aladdin which collected an estimated $3.8M in its ninth weekend. Off 38%, Disney has banked $340M from North America, $648.8M internationally, and a stellar $988.8M worldwide as it prepares to become the studio's latest billion-dollar smash.
Horror hit Annabelle Comes Home took in an estimated $2.7M, down 53%, for a total of $66.6M. With $196.2M worldwide, the Annabelle trilogy has now grossed a sensational $757M global averaging more than a quarter-billion each. Fellow fright flick Midsommar dropped 56% to an estimated $1.6M putting A24 at $22.5M.
Rounding out the top ten was The Secret Life of Pets 2 with an estimated $1.5M, off 52%, with Universal now up to $151.6M domestic and $318.6M worldwide with a handful of key international markets still to open.
Below the top ten, Avengers: Endgame made box office history by surpassing Avatar to break the record for highest grossing global blockbuster of all-time. The record has stood for nearly a decade with no other film coming remotely close to it. The MCU juggernaut now sits at $2,790,200,000 worldwide (including $854.2M domestic) edging ahead of Avatar's $2,789,700,000 which includes all reissues. In the category of tickets sold, the James Cameron film still leads by a healthy margin as ticket prices were much lower in 2009-2010.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $245.3M which was up 56% from last year when Equalizer 2 opened at number one with $36M; and up 42% from 2017 when Dunkirk debuted on top with $50.5M.
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| # | Title | Jul 19 - 21 | Jul 12 - 14 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | Distributor |
| 1 | The Lion King | $ 191,770,759 | 4,725 | 1 | $ 40,586 | $ 191,770,759 | Disney | ||
| 2 | Spider-Man: Far From Home | 21,202,431 | 45,353,359 | -53.3 | 4,415 | 3 | 4,802 | 319,861,843 | Sony |
| 3 | Toy Story 4 | 15,551,086 | 20,945,639 | -25.8 | 3,750 | 5 | 4,147 | 376,484,435 | Disney |
| 4 | Crawl | 6,095,561 | 12,005,210 | -49.2 | 3,170 | 2 | 1,923 | 23,930,371 | Paramount |
| 5 | Yesterday | 5,020,835 | 6,708,055 | -25.2 | 2,662 | 4 | 1,886 | 57,517,300 | Universal |
| 6 | Stuber | 4,115,279 | 8,225,384 | -50.0 | 3,050 | 2 | 1,349 | 16,197,143 | Fox |
| 7 | Aladdin | 4,085,424 | 6,173,124 | -33.8 | 2,105 | 9 | 1,941 | 340,326,138 | Disney |
| 8 | Annabelle Comes Home | 2,601,687 | 5,622,042 | -53.7 | 1,981 | 4 | 1,313 | 66,523,888 | Warner Bros. |
| 9 | Midsommar | 1,596,447 | 3,667,722 | -56.5 | 1,105 | 3 | 1,445 | 22,479,475 | A24 |
| 10 | The Secret Life of Pets 2 | 1,535,065 | 3,205,795 | -52.1 | 1,380 | 7 | 1,112 | 151,556,230 | Universal |
| 11 | Avengers: Endgame | 1,514,741 | 2,104,276 | -28.0 | 985 | 13 | 1,538 | 854,531,934 | Disney |
| 12 | The Farewell | 1,145,320 | 355,662 | 222.0 | 35 | 2 | 32,723 | 1,653,444 | A24 |
| 13 | The Art of Self-Defense | 1,080,607 | 114,374 | 844.8 | 550 | 2 | 1,965 | 1,239,896 | Bleecker St. |
| 14 | Rocketman | 964,239 | 1,685,106 | -42.8 | 720 | 8 | 1,339 | 93,981,610 | Paramount |
| 15 | John Wick: Chapter 3 | 630,393 | 1,334,416 | -52.8 | 584 | 10 | 1,079 | 168,861,620 | Lionsgate |
| 16 | MIB International | 540,683 | 2,218,592 | -75.6 | 554 | 6 | 976 | 78,164,791 | Sony |
| 17 | Super 30 | 441,945 | 870,726 | -49.2 | 189 | 2 | 2,338 | 1,731,646 | Reliance |
| 18 | Wild Rose | 260,751 | 296,146 | -12.0 | 195 | 5 | 1,337 | 1,175,413 | Neon |
| 19 | Maiden | 250,630 | 218,328 | 14.8 | 84 | 4 | 2,984 | 845,110 | Sony Classics |
| 20 | The Last Black Man in SF | 247,677 | 360,256 | -31.2 | 149 | 7 | 1,662 | 3,827,242 | A24 |
| Top 5 | $ 239,640,672 | $ 93,237,647 | 157.0 | ||||||
| Top 10 | 253,574,574 | 114,124,922 | 122.2 | ||||||
| Top 20 | 260,651,560 | 122,573,365 | 112.6 | ||||||
| Top 20 vs. 2018 | 260,651,560 | 168,605,193 | 54.6 |
Last Updated: July 21, 2019 at 12:30PM ET
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