Weekend Box Office (July 26 - 28, 2019)
THIS WEEKEND Still ahead of the pack in its second weekend, The Lion King ruled the box office with an estimated $75.5M propelling its domestic cume to a stellar $350.8M. However, the decline of 61% was hefty and was bigger than the 51% of Toy Story 4 and the 53% of Aladdin, both from the Disney empire as well and having large built-in audiences.
Still, very few films have ever reached the $350M mark by its tenth day of release and summer audiences have been coming out in hefty numbers. The Simba tale should have no problem breaking $500M and will likely surpass $550M as well becoming 2019's second highest grossing movie after Avengers: Endgame.
Overseas, the King grabbed another $142.8M pushing the international haul to $611.9M making for a massive $962.7M worldwide take. It will shatter the billion dollar mark in the coming days, possibly on Tuesday, on its way to more than $1.4 billion.
Quentin Tarantino hit a new record career high with the estimated $40.4M opening weekend for his latest film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. That edges out the $38.1M debut a decade ago for Inglourious Basterds from the summer of 2009. The R-rated Sony release also delivered the biggest openings in six years to both Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The Great Gatsby and World War Z respectively were their last bigger openings and both came out in the summer of 2013.
Hollywood scored great reviews from film critics. Paying audiences have so far liked the film, but buzz is not stellar. The CinemaScore grade is a so-so B which was the same for Tarantino's last film, The Hateful 8. The new stunt man saga is also only the third R-rated movie this year to break $40M on opening weekend joining Jordan Peele's Us ($71.1M) and Keanu Reeves' John Wick: Chapter 3 ($56.8M).
This is Tarantino's ninth feature film but also his first to be released outside of Harvey Weinstein's companies. It should become his fourth film to cross $100M at the domestic box office.
A pair of juggernaut summer sequels followed. Sony's Spider-Man: Far From Home fell 43% to an estimated $12.2M boosting the super hero's domestic cume to $344.5M surpassing the $334.1M of Homecoming. With another $692.4M from overseas markets, this one has become the first Spider-Man movie to ever cross the one billion dollar mark and now sits at $1.04 billion.
Also hoping to end up in ten-digit territory by the end of its run is Pixar's Toy Story 4 which collected an estimated $9.9M this weekend, off 37%. Disney's new totals are now $395.6M domestic, $522.3M international, and $917.9M global. Dropping only 34% to an estimated $4M was Paramount's fright flick Crawl which has banked $31.5M to date. Universal's music-driven hit Yesterday followed with an estimated $3M, down 40%, for $63.3M overall.
The Disney remake world did double duty in the top ten as Aladdin remained on the list in its tenth remarkable weekend grossing an estimated $2.8M, off 32%. Latest numbers are $345.9M from North America, $663.8M from overseas, and $1.01 billion worldwide. Stuber tumbled 59% to an estimated $1.7M putting Fox at $20.1M overall. Horror hit Annabelle Comes Home grossed an estimated $1.56M, down 40%, with a $69.7M sum. Global is now a solid $207.4M.
In a tie for ninth place and jumping into the top ten for the first time was this summer's indie hit The Farewell which widened from 35 to 135 runs and collected an estimated $1.55M for the weekend for a strong $11,511 average. Based on an actual lie, the PG-rated film has rolled out in terrific form and has now reached the top ten with the fewest theaters of any movie all year. Nothing in under 400 locations has done it so far in 2019, until now.
A24 has made $3.7M to date and will be going nationwide next week as it expects to me a major specialty offering in the marketplace into the fall. Farewell is also that rare subtitled movie to make it into the nationwide top ten.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $152.5M which was off 3% from last year when Mission: Impossible - Fallout opened at number one with $61.2M; and up 14% from 2017 when Dunkirk remained on top with $26.6M.
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Last Updated: July 28, 2019 at 1:00PM ET
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