The month of August got off to a somewhat fast and furious start at the North America box office this weekend as Universal’s action/comedy Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw raced its way to an easy number one debut.
The first spinoff from the nearly two decade-old Fast and the Furious franchise, Hobbs and Shaw began its box office race this weekend on 4,253 screens where it earned an estimated $60.8 million.
Directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2, John Wick) and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby, the $200 million production was met with okay notices from the nation’s film critics. H&S scored a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 60/100 on Metacritic. Audiences were far more receptive to the over-the-top antics of Hobbs and Shaw. They gave the film an “A-“ on CinemaScore.
Overseas, Hobbs and Shaw sped its way to a big $120 million opening weekend. Russia was the top market with $8.1 million, followed by the United Kingdom ($7.8 million), Indonesia ($7.69 million), India ($7.4 million) and Mexico with $6.96 million. China, where the Fast and Furious films have been insanely popular, opens the film in three weeks’ time.
After ruling the box office for the past two weeks, Disney’sThe Lion King abdicated the throne to move into second place for its third weekend. The Jon Favreau-directed remake roared 50% quieter in its third week to earn an estimated $38.2 million from a very wide screen count of 4,802. In North America, The Lion King has commanded $430.8 million so far and is still eyeing a domestic finish north of $500 million.
Outside of North America, King pocketed another $72 million in ticket sales this weekend. That helped push its foreign total up to $765 million and an overall global total of $1.195 billion. With Japan and Italy set to open the film shortly, The Lion King has a pretty good chance to clawing its way into the top ten all-time global hits by the end of September.
Favorable word-of-mouth helped Sony’s Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood have a solid second weekend. The acclaimed Quentin Tarantino comedy/drama dipped 51% on 3,659 screens, resulting in an estimated haul of $20 million. After ten days, Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood has earned $78.8million. QT’s ninth film could finish its domestic run near the $120 million mark, which would make it his third highest-grossing film after Django Unchained and Inglorious Basterds.
Another Sony hit, Spider-Man: Far From Home, landed in fourth place with an estimated $7.75 million from 3,446 theaters. Down 38% in its fifth week, Far From Home has spun a domestic box office web worth $360.3 million. The film should pass 2004’s Spider-Man 2 to become the second biggest Spidey flick to date -pre-inflation- by the end of the month. Internationally, Far From Home added $9.5 million to its foreign total, which is now up to $715 million. The overall global total for Far From Home is now $1.08 billion.
Rounding out the top five was Disney’s Toy Story 4 with an estimated $7.15 million from 3,225 theaters. Down 32%, the new domestic total for Toy Story 4 after seven weeks is $410 million. Buzz and Woody added $10.5 million to the Mouse House’s international piggy bank, which now stands at $549.2 million. The billion-dollar global mark is still a strong possibility for Toy Story 4.
- Yesterday (Universal) $2.44 million (-21%); $68 million
- The Farewell (A24) $2.42 million (+60%); $6.8 million
- Crawl (Paramount) $2.1 million (-47%); $36 million
- Aladdin (Disney) $2 million (-34%); $350 million
- Annabelle Comes Home (Warner) $875,000 (-44%); $71.5 million
Next weekend sees the arrival of no less than five new films into the market: The Kitchen, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Brian Banks.
