After the eighth biggest opening of all time last weekend, there was little doubt that Jon Favreau’s The Lion King remake would hold on to the top spot for a second weekend in a row. Even with a 60 percent drop, the film still earned $76.5 million, and after ten days, it’s already raked in $350 million domestic. It now holds the title for the seventh biggest first week at the box office, and it’s on the cusp of surpassing 2016’s Jungle Book (also directed by Jon Favreau) for the highest grossing remake of a family film ($364 million) and talking animal movie. It only sits behind Beauty and the Beast as the highest grossing “musical movie.” In other words, The Lion King is doing very well, as it nears $1 billion worldwide.
The big story of the weekend, however, was the performance of the weekend’s lone wide release, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Starring Brad Pitt, Leo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie, the film earned $40 million in its first weekend, topping Tarantino’s personal best weekend opener, 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, which amassed $38 million in its opening weekend on its way to $120 million (Django Unchained‘s $165 million remains Tarantino’s biggest moneymaker, overall, although it opened over Christmas, where opening weekends are smaller but the legs are longer).
Buoyed by strong reviews (85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), an A-list cast, and decent word of mouth (it received a B Cinemascore), Tarantino’s latest was not slowed by its nearly three-hour runtime. Nine films into his career (or ten, if you count Kill Bill as two films), Tarantino remains one of the few directors who can generate a blockbuster opening with an original film. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was not cheap, however, costing Sony upwards of $90 million to produce (much of went to Pitt, Robbie, and DiCaprio, I’m sure). Tarantino, however, plays very well overseas, so even if Hollywood taps out at around $100-$120 million stateside, he’s likely to double it overseas, per his track record. With only one tentpole picture remaining this summer (next weekend’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood should have plenty of room to stretch its legs through August.
Familiar holdovers occupied most of the rest of the top ten this weekend. In its fourth weekend, Spider-Man: Far From Home took the third spot with $12.2 million to bring its total to $344 million. It’s also crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide, becoming not only the highest grossing Spider-Man film ever, but only the second Sony film to cross $1 billion. With another $9.7 million stateside, Toy Story 4 has crossed the $900 million mark worldwide and might join Far From Home in the $1 billion club before the summer is out.
The rest of the top ten all fell under the $4 million mark this weekend, led by Crawl and its $3.9 million. It’s now earned $31 million on a $13 million budget. Danny Boyle’s Yesterday is a rare non-blockbuster hit this summer, earning $3 million to brings its total to $63 million. However, it has earned over $100 million worldwide on a modest $26 million budget.
Aladdin, now in its whopping tenth week in the top ten, earned $2.6 million to bring its total to $345 million, although it has also crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide. With $1.7 million, Stuber has stalled at $20 million overall (and it’s gotten very little love overseas). Annabelle Comes Home got a trickle with $1.5 million to give it $70 million stateside, though it has crossed $200 million worldwide on a $30 million budget.
Finally, A24’s critically beloved The Farewell entered the top ten this weekend, earning $1.4 million in only 135 theaters (to put that in perspective, Stuber’s $1.7 million came from 2,150 theaters).
Next weekend will see the release of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and that is it, although after three consecutive weekends with only one major release apiece, the floodgates open on the weekend of August 10th when five films go wide in an effort to pick up the late summer dregs.
Source: Box Office Mojo, Deadline
