Disney’s ‘The Lion King‘ has started ruling the North American box office with an estimated opening weekend gross of $180M, reports Variety. If the estimates hold, the live-action remake of the Disney classic of the same name would mark the second-best opening of 2019. It would also replace ‘Incredibles 2,’ which earned an opening weekend haul of $182.7M in 2017. The Disney flick is also expected to topple ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2‘ to become the highest July weekend opener. The Harry Potter flick set the current record of $169.1M in 2011.
‘The Lion King’ is also on its way to break the highest opening weekend record of other Disney reboots that include Jon Favreau’s ‘The Jungle Book,’ which holds the second place with a $103M and ‘Beauty and the Beast‘ which holds the record with a $174M set in 2017. The film debuted in China last week and earned $81M, bringing its overall global haul to $192M as of Friday. Though the critics’ reactions on ‘The Lion King’ are mostly polarizing, the viewers welcome the movie with all its animation nostalgia.
Sony’s MCU flick ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home‘ captures second place with an estimated earning of $21M in its third week at the box office. The movie has already touched the $320M mark in the domestic market while earning $560M globally.
Disney and Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 4‘ finishes third this week with a $14M estimated weekend gross, bringing its overall gross to nearly $375M by Sunday. Paramount’s alligator thriller ‘Crawl‘ lands fourth this week with about $6M gross in its second weekend. Universal’s musical hit ‘Yesterday‘ finishes fifth with a total haul of $5M.
Fox’s ‘Stuber‘ and Disney’s ‘Aladdin‘ are in a neck-and-neck race for the sixth place. According to estimated figures, ‘Stuber’ takes sixth place with a three day gross of $3.8M. The movie, which struggled during the opening weekend to pick up momentum has earned a total of $15.9M so far. On the other hand, ‘Aladdin,’ which stands at 7th, continues its spell at the box office with a three-day haul of $3.6M and an overall gross of $339.9M in its ninth weekend.
Warner Bros. and New Line’s ‘Annabelle Comes Home’ takes the eighth spot with a Friday gross of $815K. The horror flick collected $66.4M total gross from a four-week run. A24’s ‘Midsommar‘ is in the ninth place with a Friday gross of $490K and an overall haul of $22.4M. Illumination and Universal’s ‘Secret Life of Pets 2‘ rounds out the weekend top 10 with a Friday collection of $420K and an overall haul of $151.4M in seven weeks.
Cover Image Courtesy: Disney.
