‘The Lion King’ Rises To $544M Global In 10 Days; ‘Aladdin’ & ‘Spider-Man’ Each Near $1B WW – International Box Office

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TUESDAY AM UPDATE, writethru with actuals: With an even mightier roar, Disney’s The Lion King came in higher than the Sunday estimate, lapping up a $275.2M weekend at the international box office. The adaptation of the classic animation was No. 1 in all of its 51 opening markets, which joined China after the early bow there last week. Through 10 days, the Jon Favreau-helmed film grossed $351.8M overseas for $543.6M worldwide when including domestic, where it set a new July record, and also rose in the actuals.

The global launch tally this frame (ie, outside China) was $446.1M, the 9th biggest of all time. Factoring in China’s $97.5M through Sunday, The Lion King is already the No. 7 movie of the year worldwide. Disney has five out of the Top 7 titles thus far.

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Any concerns this weekend about lukewarm critical response on Lion King started flying out the window as Simba got going mid-week last week. Pre-weekend industry projections for the new hubs — ie excluding the China holdover — were dusted and we quickly saw that the international total would be above $300M through Sunday.

Still to come are Japan, Hong Kong and Italy and it looks safe to project at least a $900M+ finish on Lion King overseas. There is clear play ahead — although not in China where local animated title Ne Zha has folks buzzing for the coming frame, and after another local title, Looking Up, dominated the current weekend. But overall, reactions from offshore have been strongly positive with good social chatter and momentum ahead.

Looking at international debuts, Simba and pals were tops everywhere and landed within the Top 5 industry opening weekends ever in several hubs, including Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and the entire Latin America region. The launch is above Beauty And The Beast in nearly all material markets and tops The Jungle Book and Aladdin in each.

Speaking of Aladdin, the surprise juggernaut is zooming to the $1B worldwide mark having now grossed $989M after a 40% offshore drop this session. In Korea, the Will Smith-starrer has passed Avengers: Age Of Ultron to become the No. 4 western release ever, behind Avatar, Endgame and Infinity War. Aladdin, like Lion King, faced tough reaction from the Rotten Tomatoes crowd, and has flown in the face of a soft score.

In total, Disney had a banner weekend with Toy Story 4 topping $800M global and Avengers: Endgame passing Avatar as the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. The cume through Sunday on Endgame is $1,936.1M internationally and $2,790.3M global, still with some offshore markets to rerelease.

In related Avengers news, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home sprang to another $37.2M in 67 markets, lifting the offshore cume to $651.1M (now including over $200M from China) and swinging global to $970.9M on its way to $1B.

In non-Disney, non-superhero news, Illumination/Universal’s The Secret Life Of Pets 2 barked across the $300M worldwide threshold while Uni’s Yesterday is approaching $100M. New Line/Warner Bros’ Annabelle Comes Home is now just shy of $200M.

Next weekend internationally is essentially a holdover play as Lion King continues to roam and the other major titles seek out new milestones while China looks primed to embrace local title Ne Zha. This is all in advance of the following week’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw which begins offshore rollout on July 31 (China goes August 23). In the meantime, breakdowns on this weekend’s titles above and more have been updated below.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
THE LION KING

Disney’s CGI/live-action adaptation of its classic animated property took pride of place at the international (and global) box office this weekend, tearing up another $275.2M ($5.8M above the Sunday estimate) to add to its earlier play in China. In all 52 overseas markets so far released, TLK has $351.8M. Added to domestic, which increased as expected from the Sunday studio’s estimate, the global total through Sunday is $543.6M. Lifetime projections for offshore currently are coming in at least above $900M.

Opening at No. 1 in all new markets, the Jon Favreau-directed tale performed strongly everywhere, particularly Europe and Latin America. China, where a local movie (Looking Up) came into the frame, is the only hub where TLK was not No. 1 this weekend. It did another $21M for the Middle Kingdom three-day and has put a paw print on $98M so far. It will likely get to around $130M or so when all is said and done. There is competition ahead from another local pic, Ne Zha, which has great social scores and has already been in previews.

Looking elsewhere, TLK did $122M in its opening European weekend. Highlights include the biggest industry opening of all time in the Netherlands ($6M); the 2nd biggest industry opening weekend ever in Russia ($16.7M); and the top launch for a Disney-branded live-action movie in Bosnia, Croatia, France, Norway, and Poland. France is especially strong on the movie with $19.6M to date.

Across Latin America, the big cat grabbed $57M. This includes being the 5th biggest industry opening weekend of all time in the region; the 2nd best ever in Brazil ($17.9M); and the 4th in Mexico ($18.7M). All material markets bowed ahead of Beauty And The Beast, The Jungle Book and Aladdin.

In Asia-Pacific, The Lion King groomed itself to $90M. The film had the 5th biggest industry opening weekend of all time in Australia ($17.1M); and the top start ever for a Disney-branded live-action movie in Korea ($17.7M).

Thirty-six percent of Lion King’s $531M worldwide gross to date has come from 3D. In IMAX, the movie scored the best global opening ever for a Disney-branded title with $25.2M, over 26% bigger than Beauty And The Beast and The Jungle Book. (IMAX also had a great weekend in Japan with Toho’s Weathering With You which opened to $1.3M on 30 screens for the best local bow in the format ever.)

Still to come on The Lion King, which looks to have sturdy legs over the next few weeks, are Hong Kong, Japan and Italy.

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

Looking to lasso $1B worldwide potentially this week, Sony/Marvel’s Spidey sequel snared another $37.2M from 67 markets offshore this weekend. That lifts the international web to $651.1M and global to $970.9M through Sunday, making this the biggest of all the Spider-Man movies worldwide.

Notably this session, and despite the competition in the market, FFH topped $200M in China with $201.1M after four weekends. Italy, in its second session, held the No. 1 spot with $1.7M for a $9.6M cume to date. This is one of the key markets where The Lion King did not bow this frame.

Behind China, the Top 5 FFH markets are rounded out by Korea ($55.4M), UK ($34.1M), Mexico ($28.7M) and Japan ($24.8M).

TOY STORY 4

The Disney/Pixar fourquel has become the 7th Pixar title to cross $800M worldwide, now with $860.2M. Across 94% of the international footprint, TS4 has grossed $484.7M after adding $26.4M in the current session overseas for a drop in the 40%s; especially impressive given competition from stablemate Lion King.

Notable holds this frame, despite the arrival of stablemate The Lion King, include the UK (-32%), Chile (-36%), France (-40%), Netherlands (-46%) and Israel (-48%).

Forky and the gang are now stars of the biggest ever Disney Animation/Pixar release in the Middle East and the No. 3 film of 2019 in the UK.

Germany is still to release in August. The current Top 5 is led by Mexico ($69.3M), UK ($59.6M), Japan ($36.8M), Brazil ($29.6M) and China ($29.1M).

ALADDIN

After nine weekends, Disney’s Aladdin is still shining that lamp. Now with $988.8M globally, wishes for $1B will come true in short order. The surprising magic carpet ride added $9.1M in 43 material markets this session to lift its offshore cume to $648.8M. Like Toy Story, Aladdin wasn’t tamed by Lion King, seeing a strong hold.

The spectacular run continues in Korea where the weekend-to-weekend drop was just 19% and saw the film pass Avengers: Age Of Ultron to become the No. 4 western release ever. It is behind only Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War with $79.5M to date.

The Will Smith-starrer has also topped Captain Marvel in the EMEA to become the No. 2 highest-grossing film of the year.

Japan leads all markets with $96.7M so far. The current weekend was down just 33%. Korea is next in the Top 5 which is rounded out by China ($53.3M), UK ($45.1M) and Mexico ($32.5M).

ANNABELLE COMES HOME

New Line/Warner Bros’ summer counterprogrammer scared up another $7.2M this weekend in 78 markets. There were no new openings while holds were led by France. The full international cume to date is $129.5M for $196.1M worldwide, putting $200M in the doll’s crosshairs.

The Top 5 markets so far are Mexico ($16M), Indonesia ($8.9M), Brazil ($6.6M), Russia ($5.5M) and UK ($5M). Japan will be the last major market to release, on September 20.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2

Illumination/Universal’s sequel crossed the $300M worldwide mark this week, and added $6.7M internationally over the weekend in 53 markets. The full overseas run so far is $167M for $318.6M global and with Japan, Korea, France, Spain and Mexico still on deck. There were no new openings this session and most markets are in the 4th and 5th frames. China has grossed $21M to date, with Germany at $13M and Australia at $12.3M among the top continuing hubs.

UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

Yesterday (UNI): $4.2M intl weekend (39 markets); $40.5M intl cume ($98.1M global)
Crawl (PAR): $2.7M intl weekend (21 markets); $9.9M intl cume ($33.7M global)
Anna (LGF): $2.4M intl weekend (41 markets); $12.4M intl come ($20M global)
The Hustle (UNI): $1.1M intl weekend (17 UNI markets); $57.2M intl cume ($92.6M global)
Rocketman (PAR): $605K intl weekend (31 markets); $88.6M intl cume ($182.6M global)
Avengers: Endgame (DIS): $300K intl weekend (24 markets); $1,936.1M intl cume ($2,790.3M global)
The Dead Don’t Die (UNI): $300K intl weekend (12 markets); $6.3M intl cume ($12.9M global)
Ma (UNI): $100K intl weekend (9 markets); $14.8M intl cume ($60.2M global)

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