Carl Roberts 
Simba and Co topple Spider-Man to claim top spot at the worldwide box office
Disney’s live-action remakes of their best-loved animated films continued their recent winning streak as ‘The Lion King‘ roared loudest this past weekend with an estimated $185million weekend. Setting a new record for a July opening weekend, the film managed to land itself the eighth-highest domestic opening weekend in the U.S charts history and outside of Marvel and Star Wars movies, gave Disney its best opening weekend. Featuring the vocal talents of Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Beyonce Knowles and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film managed to bite off $346million from global markets to land upon $531million against an estimated budget of $260million. The critics decided that the film didn’t deserve to be king as they only awarded the film a meagre 55% approval. But audiences certainly felt the love and voted with their feet.
Our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man may have slipped down to the second position on the chart but ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home‘ still managed to fling its webs and grab another $21million and updating its coffers to the tune of $319.6million domestically and $970.8million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Spider-Man film of them all. And with a third film almost certainly now confirmed, we can look forward to seeing the worlds best-loved web-crawler again in a few years time.
‘Toy Story 4‘ still managed to pack them in as it ended the weekend in the third position. The fourth entry in the saga managed to take another $14.6million, bringing its worth up to $375.5million domestic and $859.4million around the globe on a budget of $200million.
Although it managed to lose 50% of its audience in its second week, Alexandre Aja directed creature feature ‘Crawl‘ still managed to go for a death roll and take another $6million as it swam home in fourth place. The hungry alligators’ horror film now sits on a domestic total of $23.8million and a worldwide take of $33.7million against a budget of $13.5million. The film hasn’t opened in many territories around the world yet so its box office clout will improve over the next month or so.
Still singing loudly in the fifth position, the Danny Boyle directed ‘Yesterday‘ managed to busk its way to a further $5.1million. The film now has a worldwide gross of $98.1million and a domestic takedown of $57.5million against its modest $26million budget.
In the sixth position, the action-comedy ‘Stuber‘ managed to break even with its budget of $16million after a weekend take of $4million. The film has now made $18.9million worldwide, not the sort of figures to write home about.
Still flying on his magic carpet in seventh place came ‘Aladdin‘. The film made another $3.8million, swelling its kingdoms coffers to $340million domestic and $988.8million worldwide.
The pesky doll decided she would hang around to terrify audiences again for another week as ‘Annabelle Comes Home‘ dropped to the eighth position while clawing another $2.6million out of frightened movie goers pockets. Four weeks in and the film now has made $66.5million domestically and $196.2million around the world on a budget of $30million.
Ninth place went to scary slow-burner ‘Midsommar‘ while ‘The Secret Life Of Pets 2‘ refused to be put down and landed in the tenth place.
Finally being kicked off the planet this weekend was ‘Men In Black International‘ as it slid out of the top ten after five weeks on the chart. But the big news is, although it left the chart last weekend, ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ finally defeated ‘Avatar‘ for the coveted all-time top-grossing film as it hit an astonishing £2.79billion and claiming the crown for itself. Many congratulations to Robert Downey Jr and friends for this magnificent achievement.
In limited release, ‘The Farewell‘ is still showing good promise as it made $1.1million this past weekend, the Awkwafina starring film showing on only 35 screens (That works out as an average of $33,000 per screen). The Jesse Eisenberg comedy ‘ The Art Of Self Defence‘ expanded to 550 screens across the U.S and made itself a $1million weekend.
Next weekend sees the release of writer/ director Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film called ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood‘. The Brad Pitt /Leonardo DiCaprio/ Margot Robbie starring film has been gaining excellent reviews and notices with many claiming this is QT’s masterpiece. The film opens in the U.K in August and as a self-confessed Tarantino fan, I can’t wait to see the film. The trailers I’ve seen so far haven’t dampened down my enthusiasm to see the film at all, in fact, they have increased it. Sadly though, I can’t see the film hitting the top of the chart next weekend due to a number of factors. Families will flock to see The Lion King whereas Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is a hard R. Also to be taken into account is the films 161-minute running time. Though I’m excited to sit through almost three hours of Quentin Tarantino movie-making, the runtime will impact how many screenings the film can fit into one day, thereby diminishing it’s earning power. However, I don’t think that will bother the director too much!
Ok, over to you again. How will Quentin Tarantino’s movie stack up against the might of The Lion King? Will it pull off a major coup and surprise and unseat Disney’s latest box office hit? Or will it take an almighty mauling in the race to top the charts? All will be revealed next week so until then, Happy Movie Going!
The Future of the Force. The future of pop culture writing.
Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Indiana Jones and Horror movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Carl Roberts is the News Editor for The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
