erik lundegaard

Sunday July 28, 2019

Box Office: ‘Lion King’ Roars, So Does QT

Once upon a time and a very bad time it was....

My wife and I are going to see “Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood” later today, but of course Box Office Mojo and the like already know this since they‘ve got the weekend totals all ready for us—and they’re usually not far off. 

Disney's “Lion King” won the weekend with $75 mil, a 60% drop from its record-setting animated opening of $191, which is what you expect with record-setting openings. At the same time, it's not what you expect from animated movies. Kids' movies, like women's movies, tend to have longer legs. It's movies made for men and boys that tend to blow it all opening weekend.

Among other animated movies that opened big, for example, “Incredibles 2” (No. 2) dropped 56%, “Finding Dory” (3) dropped 46%, “Shrek the Third” (4) dropped 56% and “Toy Story 4” (5) dropped 50%. That said, only “Incredibles 2” grossed bigger. A big drop for “LK,” sure, but it's still the 11th-biggest second weekend ever, unadjusted, after having the eighth-biggest opener ever. The year/decade/century of Disney continues. 

Anyone see it, btw? 

Tarantino came in second with $40 million. That's his biggest opener, beating “Django” by $2 mil. “Django” is also his biggest all-time domestic grosser at $162—or about $30 mil less than “Lion King” grossed last weekend. So it goes. His cachet is elsewhere.

For the record, it's Leo's fourth-biggest opener (after “Inception,” “Gatsby” and “Shutter Island”) and Brad's fourth-biggest  (“World War Z,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Troy”). Their cachet is elsewhere, too.

Spidey still clings to the top, finishing third with $12 mil for a domestic gross of $344 and worldwide past $1 billion. Domestically, that's the third-biggest Spider-Man (after the first two Tobeys); worldwide, it's the biggest by far. 

These are the biggest movies worldwide this year, and their all-time ranking in parentheses:

  1. “Avengers: Endgame”: $2.79 billion (1)
  2. “Captain Marvel”: $1.12 billion (22)
  3. “Spider-Man: Far From Home”: #1.03 billion (32)
  4. “Aladdin”: $1.009 billion (40)
  5. “Lion King”: $962 million (47)
  6. “Toy Story 4”: $917 million (57)

All are Disney save Spidey, which is Sony/Columbia, but owes much to Disney's MCU. 

Posted at 11:17 AM on Sunday July 28, 2019 in category Movies - Box Office  
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