The Mouse House is having a hell of a weekend. After Saturday’s massive Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where the studio announced almost a dozen projects over the next two years, Disney went ahead and earned the top 3 spots at the domestic box office, led by an absolutely huge debut from Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King.”
Before ‘Lion King,’ the best opening ever for July occurred back in 2011 when “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” debuted with a domestic total of $169 million. Well, thanks to Disney’s love of remakes and preying on audiences’ nostalgia, “The Lion King” destroyed that record with a $185 million opening in North America. The opening weekend is also a record among the studio’s recent remakes, beating the previous best debut from “Beauty and the Beast,” which had a 3-day total of $175 million. Thanks to showstopping CGI and an all-star cast, Disney had no issue making ‘Lion King’ an event.
Globally, the news is even better. Technically, this is the second weekend for the remake overseas. So through 10 days, ‘Lion King’ has earned $531 million, clearly setting Disney up for yet another $1 billion film in 2019. So far, the Mouse House has two films that have earned over $1 billion, with “Captain Marvel” and “Avengers: Endgame.” And there’s “Aladdin,” which currently sits at $989 million and should cross the threshold in a matter of days, as well as “Toy Story 4” with $859 million. Realistically, we are looking at least seven Disney films this year earning over $1 billion (“Frozen 2” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” hits theaters in later this year). Disney definitely is the biggest game in town.
In addition, Disney-adjacent film “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (produced by Marvel Studios) currently sits at $970 million globally and will likely pass $1 billion in the next week.
And yes, I have to admit defeat. For weeks, I’ve doubted that “Avengers: Endgame” had enough in the tank to beat “Avatar” for the all-time global box office record. But I should have never doubted Marvel. This weekend, it happened. ‘Endgame’ squeaked past James Cameron’s film for the #1 all-time record with a total of $2.79 billion worldwide. Not that Disney needs it, but congrats to the folks there about the accomplishment. Of course, Disney has a shot at beating its own record when the studio distributes “Avatar 2.”
Now, for the non-Disney portion of the box office, we should rave about Lulu Wang’s film, “The Farewell.” After debuting in limited release last weekend, where the A24 film earned 2019’s best Per-Theater-Average (PTA), the family drama expanded to 35 locations and earned another incredible PTA of $33,473. The buzz for this film continues to build and could turn into a surprise hit for A24 as it expands to more locations in the coming weeks.
Next week will be an interesting frame at the box office. Quentin Tarantino’s highly-anticipated film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” arrives nationwide. That film has the potential to be a blockbuster, but with intense competition, well just have to see how the star-studded film fares.