David Leitch, director of John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Deadpool 2, has released his fourth consecutive successful action film with Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Helen Mirren, Eddie Marsan, and Vanessa Kirby.
Hobbs & Shaw opened at No. 1 over its first weekend of release, selling a solid $60 million in the U.S. and $180 million worldwide over its first three days of release. Not quite F&F numbers, but very good when you consider that: (1) we’re arguably in the best part of the summer when everyone wants to be outside; and (2) there’s a very competitive and crowded box office right now.
But this is a Fast & Furious film, and people love these movies. Look for this one to make a whole lot of money once it’s all said and done. I’ll predict that it makes over $800 million worldwide. And yes, there will be a second Hobbs & Shaw film.
Also at the Box
The new Disney classic, The Lion King — just kidding, it’s a live action remake of a classic animated Disney film — continued to make big bucks, taking the No. 2 spot at last weekend’s domestic box office with another $38 million in sales.
To compare, the original animated Lion King from 1994 made $422 million in the U.S. and $968 million worldwide. According to an online inflation calculator, the original Lion King’s box office pull is equal to $1.67 billion in 2019.
So far, the new film, directed by Jon Favreau, has brought in $1.2 billion in 17 days.
If you were to ask me two months ago if I thought that the live-action remake had a chance of out-performing the original film, I’d have blocked you on Twitter with a laugh. But now it seems that Favreau’s film has a fighting chance of topping the success of the original The Lion King film. Unbelievable. I’ve not yet seen the film, so I can’t even comment on its quality. But Favreau works hard. Favreau makes good movies.
Quentin Tarantino’s new classic, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, took the No. 3 spot at last weekend’s busy box office, bringing in another $20 million and upping the film’s 10-day domestic total to just under $79 million. Look for this one to make well over $100 million domestically and completely blow up once it hits foreign markets.
If you’re someone who thinks every new Marvel film is a “new classic,” I suggest you go to this movie and see what a “new classic” really looks like. Thank you, QT, for this one. It’s pretty dang special.
Speaking of the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man: Far From Home continued to roll, bringing in another $7.8 million last weekend, bringing the flick’s five-week international sales total to just over $1 billion. (While I do believe that some of these Marvel films offer incredible entertainment value, I would also like to suggest that anyone who goes solely to comic book-based films Google the term “collective unconscious” and do some reading.)
Rounding out last weekend’s Top 5 at the domestic box office was another franchise film, Toy Story 4. This one made $7.1 million, upping its seven-week worldwide sales total to $959 million.
Also of note: Danny Boyle’s Yesterday just keeps on selling tickets. So far the flick has made $68 million in the U.S. and $120 million worldwide despite some very mixed reviews. This, friends, is the power of The Beatles. But, also, Boyle is a good filmmaker.
New this Week
After a six-week run of major, dominant releases, this weekend will see the wide release of five smaller (but still pretty big) films, starting with Fox’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, directed by Mark Bomback and starring Kevin Costner, Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, and Gary Cole. Looks promising for a PG film.
Next up is Tom Shadyac’s new drama Brian Banks. Meh. Not sure how this one got a wide release.
Then we have family flick Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which looks very mediocre but will probably satisfy some of the summertime kiddos out there.
Next up is the very promising The Kitchen, starring Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, and Tiffany Haddish and directed by Andrea Berloff (who helped pen Straight Outta Compton as well as Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center). This flashy crime drama tells the story of three wives of 1970s NYC gangsters who continue to run the show for their husbands while they’re in jail. That’s a premise that demands a high level of execution; here’s hoping Berloff, a first-time director, pulls it off. She certainly has plenty of talent around her.
And, finally, we have horror-thriller hybrid Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Super meh. This one will be forgotten before the end of the year.
Mostly, I hope you’ll get out and see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.