Thank goodness for Quentin Tarantino and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” At least that’s exactly what the folks at Sony and film fans hoping for more original films are thinking. In a summer dominated by superhero films, remakes, and sequels (aka whatever Disney releases), Tarantino scored a big win for an original film with an R-rating this weekend. But of course, it still wasn’t enough to topple “The Lion King.” But hey, film fans will take what they can get.
Before we talk about that lion remake, let’s give a moment to talk about “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which actually just scored the biggest opening weekend ever for Mr. Tarantino.
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Debuting in the #2 spot, ‘Once Upon a Time’ earned an estimated $40 million in three days. Previously, the filmmaker’s biggest opening was almost exactly a decade ago in 2009, with “Inglourious Basterds,” which brought in $38 million in its opening weekend in August of that year. That actually gives us a quick look at a comparable film, as ‘Basterds’ ended its domestic run with $120 million. Tarantino’s previous film, “The Hateful Eight,” began its run in limited release, but only finished with a domestic total of $54 million. So, clearly, the star power of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio was plenty to carry the load for the filmmaker.
With a so-so ‘B’ CinemaScore (equal to ‘Hateful Eight’) and a solid 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems as if ‘Once Upon a Time’ will have a decent run in the coming weeks. By next weekend, unless there’s an absolutely massive drop off in box office, it’s likely ‘Once Upon a Time’ will earn enough to only fall behind “Pulp Fiction,” “Django Unchained,” and “The Hateful Eight” out of the 10 previous films from the director (despite Tarantino’s insistence, “Kill Bill Vol 1” and ‘Vol 2’ are two separate films and both had theatrical runs). Long story short, a pretty great opening for Tarantino and for those hoping for something other than Disney films to score big this summer.
And speaking of Disney, “The Lion King” followed up its record-breaking opening weekend with a -60% drop and a second weekend total of $70 million at the box office. Not a terrible number, by any stretch, considering the massive first frame, but probably not the hold that the Mouse House was hoping for. That being said, the film has already earned $351 million at the domestic box office and $963 million worldwide. Add it to the growing list of $1 billion films for Disney in 2019. For those keeping track, “The Lion King” will be the fourth Disney film to cross that milestone, with “Toy Story 4” likely to hit it shortly thereafter. Again, we’re talking at least 7 films from the studio that will reach $1 billion in 2019. That’s just ridiculous.
Quickly moving away from that megastudio, let’s talk about one of the more surprising stories of the summer, “Crawl.” The alligator horror film is in its third weekend and surprisingly has built a solid word-of-mouth campaign. The film ended this weekend in the #5 spot, dropping only -34%, and earning another $4 million. That brings the domestic total for “Crawl” up to $31 million. Keep in mind, this film only opened a week after the highly-anticipated and much-hyped horror film “Midsommar” and has already outgrossed that film domestically and kept in the top 10, while the latter is already down to #13 (below “Avengers: Endgame” in its 14th weekend). Sure, “Crawl” isn’t breaking records, but it damn sure is going to turn a profit for Paramount, and likely ensure a sequel (because that’s just what happens with horror films).
The last feel-good story of the weekend actually comes from a limited release film that we’ve talked about for three weeks now, “The Farewell.” Expanding yet again, this time in a total of 135 locations, Lulu Wang’s drama earned another $1.55 million, good for a $11,510 per-theater-average (PTA). In its third weekend, “The Farewell” continues to expand and also keeps the PTA super strong.
Next weekend is going to be very interesting, as the first-ever ‘Fast & Furious’ spin-off film, “Hobbs & Shaw” hits theaters. Can Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham bring massive ‘F&F’ box office numbers to a film without the normal crew, including Vin Diesel? Join us in seven days to find out.
Here’s the full domestic top 10 for July 26 to July 28:
1. The Lion King – $70M ($351M Overall)
2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – $40M (Debut)
3. Spider-Man: Far From Home – $12.2M ($344M)
4. Toy Story 4 – $10M ($395M)
5. Crawl – $4M ($31M)
6. Yesterday – $3M ($63M)
7. Aladdin – $2.8M ($346M)
8. Stuber – $1.7M ($20M)
9. Annabelle Comes Home – $1.6M ($70M)
10. The Farewell – $1.55M ($3.7M)