Lion King Remains #1, but Tarantino’s Latest Marks His Biggest Opening Ever

Walt Disney Pictures’ The Lion King remained the #1 movie at the domestic box office this weekend, pulling in another $75.5 million domestically and bringing its US total to $350.8 million. The film has already surpassed Aladdin to become the #4 highest grossing movie of the year in the US, giving Disney the 5 Highest Grossing movies of 2019 domestically (Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, and Aladdin). Internationally the remake added another $142.8 million for an international total of $611.9 million and a global total of $962.7 million. The film will certainly cross the billion threshold in the middle of this week, making it the fifth film of the year to reach that achievement and the fourth Disney release to do so. Should The Lion King’s success hold, it could dethrone Captain Marvel as the #2 highest grossing movie of the year, sitting just behind Endgame. To further highlight their domination, Walt Disney Studios has crossed the all-time global box office record (previously set by Disney in 2016) with an estimated $7.67 billion to date in 2019. Landmark releases the studio has yet to debut in 2019 include Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Frozen 2, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood opened to the tune of  $40.35 million this weekend, marking the biggest opening of Tarantino’s career (just ahead of Inglorious Basterds‘ $38 million debut, which amounts to $45.37 million adjusted). Given the star power and Tarantino’s name, the film will likely have strong legs the rest of the summer as it presents the best counter-programming option to the Disney blockbusters and upcoming films like Hobbs & Shaw.

Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Far From Home slipped to third place, bringing in an estimated $12.2 million for a domestic total of $344.4 million and pushing it past Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s domestic haul of $334 million. Internationally the sequel brought in another $21 million for an international total of $692.4 million and a global total of $1.037 billion. This marks the first Spider-Man movie to officially cross the one billion mark; however, adjusted for inflation all three of Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies cleared the one billion mark, with the first sitting at $1.169 billion adjusted.

Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 fell to fourth place with $9.9 million domestically and another $19.4 million internationally. In the US the film sits at $395.6 million, coupled with its international total of $522.3 million, the sequel has brought in $917.9 million worldwide. The film is still the second highest grossing Toy Story movie both worldwide and domestic, sitting behind Toy Story 3.

Paramount Pictures’ creature feature Crawl dipped into fifth place but still managed a $4 million haul, dropping just 34% and giving it a domestic total of $31.4 million and putting the film pretty firmly in the green after its reported production budget of $13.5 million. Internationally the movie added another $3.4 million for an international total of $14.4 million, giving it a global total of $45.8 million.