Monday Update: Universal’s Fast and the Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw led the box office with $60.0M, on the lower end of pre-release expectations.

Although the comparison isn’t exact, this spinoff also started notably below the most release Furious films: 2017’s The Fate of the Furious with $98.7M, 2015’s Furious 7 with $147.1M, 2013’s Fast & Furious 6 with $97.3M, and 2011’s Fast Five with $86.1M.

Disney’s The Lion King, after leading for the past two weekends, slipped to second place with $38.2M. But it surpassed $1B at the global office earlier this week, making it the fifth film of 2019 to reach that mark alongside Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Aladdin.

Speaking of Aladdin, that film spends an 11th weekend in the box office top 10. This frame, it ranked ninth place with $2.1M. It’s the first film to spend 11 weekends in the top 10 since Green Book reached the mark in March.

A24’s family drama The Farewell entered the top 10 after a theater expansion, taking seventh place with $2.4M. 

Comparisons

Total box office this weekend was $148.6M.

That’s -8.7% below last weekend but +3.8% above this same weekend last year, when Mission: Impossible – Fallout led for a second frame with $35.3M.

Year-to-date box office stands at $7.07B. That’s -6.3% behind this same date last year, up from -6.5% after last weekend.

Some analysts still predict 2019’s box office could ultimately beat 2018’s, on the strength of upcoming anticipated blockbusters including Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Monday’s Weekend Actuals (Domestic)

FRI, AUG. 2 – SUN, AUG. 4

Sunday Update: After a more than two-year absence from theaters, the Fast & Furious franchise returned to the top of the box office—albeit with the majority of its cast missing in action.

Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw took in an estimated $60.8 million in its debut this weekend, topping two-weekend champ The Lion King, which nonetheless reached a major box office milestone on Friday when it crossed the $400 million threshold. Elsewhere, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood held reasonably well in its sophomore frame while A24’s sleeper The Farewell enjoyed another successful expansion.

Despite debuting roughly in line with studio expectations, Hobbs & Shaw had the lowest opening of any Fast & Furious installment since Tokyo Drift—itself something of an anomaly given its standalone storyline despite technically being marketed and released as a proper sequel—which brought in $23.6 million in June 2006. Still, like that film it’s somewhat unfair to compare Hobbs & Shaw to the series’ bona fide sequels given the absence of most of its regular cast members, including old standbys Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez.

Encouragingly, audiences seem to be enjoying Hobbs & Shaw just as much as the franchise’s most popular installments. While critics were only lukewarm on the film (it has a so-so 67% on Rotten Tomatoes), the Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score currently stands at a fantastic 90% and the Cinemascore is an “A,” indicating this could have strong playability through the remainder of the summer. Its status as the season’s final tentpole release should also buoy its long-term prospects given the lack of major competition in the coming weeks. As is typical for the franchise, the opening weekend audience was majority male (58%) and racially diverse, with non-white moviegoers making up over half of ticket buyers.

Dropping to second place after two weekends at No. 1 was Disney’s The Lion King, which brought in an estimated $38.2 million in its third weekend of release. After dropping a higher-than-expected 60% last weekend, the CG blockbuster slowed its descent, easing just 50% and bringing its total to a fantastic $ million after 17 days. The film is currently pacing around 8% ahead of 2017’s Beauty & the Beast, and it should easily surpass that film’s $504 million total by the end of its run to become the highest-grossing of the studio’s reimaginings to date. Notably, this weekend it also surpassed the $422.7 million lifetime total of the original animated Lion King, albeit not adjusting for inflation.

Third place went to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which dropped 51% to an estimated $20 million in its sophomore frame. That’s a slightly larger second-weekend dip than director Quentin Tarantino’s previous biggest opener Inglourious Basterds, which fell 49% from its $38 million opening in the summer of 2009. With $78.8 million to date, Once Upon a Time is currently pacing around 7% ahead of Basterds, which finished its North American run with over $120 million.

Spider-Man: Far From Home grossed an estimated $7.7 million in fourth place, bringing its domestic total to $360.3 million through the end of its fifth weekend. In terms of the Spider-Man franchise, the MCU installment is now in third place overall and just $13 million shy of Spider-Man 2, which finished its run with $373.5 million way back in 2004 (an amount equivalent to $506 million in 2019 dollars).

Fifth went to Toy Story 4, which brought in an estimated $7.1 million in its eighth weekend for a total of $410 million to date. Next weekend, the animated sequel will surpass the $415 million total of the Pixar franchise’s previous record-holder Toy Story 3 (though in fairness, that film’s 2010 total would represent more than $487 million in 2019 dollars).

In sixth place, Yesterday continued its leggy run with an estimated $2.44 million, bringing its total to $67.9 million Stateside and nearly $119 million worldwide.

Expanding to 409 locations, acclaimed drama The Farewell finished in seventh with an estimated $2.42 million, representing a healthy per-screen average of $5,939. The total for the A24 release now stands at $6.8 million through the end of its fourth weekend.

Paramount’s Crawl finished in eighth place with an estimated $2.08 million, bringing the alligator thriller to $36 million through the end of its fourth weekend.

In ninth, Disney’s Aladdin grossed an estimated $2 million, giving the live-action reimagining a total of $350.4 million domestic through the end of its eleventh weekend and $1.0256 billion worldwide.

Finally, Warner Bros.’ Annabelle Comes Home rounded out the Top 10 with an estimated $875K in its sixth weekend, bringing the total for the horror threequel to $71.5 million to date.

Overseas Update:

Not surprisingly given the franchise’s fantastic overseas track record, Hobbs & Shaw nearly doubled its Stateside gross internationally this weekend, bringing in an estimated $120 million overseas from 63 markets for a global debut of $180.6 million. Notably, that total doesn’t include China, where the film is slated to open on August 23. Top-grossing markets this weekend include Russia ($8.2 million), the U.K. ($7.8 million) and Indonesia ($7.7 million).

The Lion King took in another estimated $72 million overseas, bringing its total to $764.9 million internationally and a massive $1.1958 billion worldwide. Country totals to date include $119 million in China, $62.4 million in the U.K. and $54.6 million in Brazil. It’s slated to open in Japan next weekend.

Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates (Domestic)

FRI, AUG. 2 – SUN, AUG. 4