Movie

The comedy-drama film gives director Quentin Tarantino his biggest opening ever, while 'The Lion King' live-action remake helps Disney break its own record of the biggest global revenue for the year.

• Jul 29, 2019

AceShowbiz - "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" launched to a strong start at North America box office. The latest movie from Quentin Tarantino debuted to an estimated $40.4 million, marking the biggest opening ever for the director.

The movie, boasting A-list cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, got positive reviews with an approval rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. The star power added with Tarantino's reputation as director became a big draw for the movie.

"In our fan survey, over 40% of the audience went to see the movie because of the director," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. "That's incredible. You almost never see that. Sony did a great job of putting that cast and certainly Tarantino at the front of the marketing. That collective star power just paid huge dividends."

However, the number isn't big enough to move "The Lion King (2019)" from the throne. The live-action remake of the 1994 classic animated film added approximately $75.5 million on its second week, bringing its total domestic cume to $350.7 million so far.

Internationally, the movie bagged another $142.8 million for a current global total of $962.7 million. As the movie is inching closer to $1 billion mark, it has helped Disney break its own record for the biggest annual global revenue. The studio has collected $7.67 billion at the 2019 global box office in seven months, surpassing its own record of $7.61 billion that was set in 2016.

Boosting Disney's total revenue this year are "Avengers: Endgame" which has posted $2.79 billion to become the top-grossing movie of all time, "Captain Marvel" which collected $1.23 billion and the live-action "Aladdin" which crossed $1 billion mark last week. Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 4" is also a tentpole for the studio with a current haul of $917.9 billion worldwide as it stays within the top five of domestic chart after six weeks playing in theaters.

Back to this week's chart, Sony-Marvel's "Spider-Man: Far from Home" drops another spot to No. 3 with an estimated $12.2 million, followed by the fourth "Toy Story" movie with additional $9.9 million. Alexandre Aja's disaster horror film "Crawl" rounds out the top five with approximately $4 million.

Top Ten Movies at Weekend Box Office for July 26-28:

1. "The Lion King (2019)" - $75.5 million
2. "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - $40.4 million
3. "Spider-Man: Far From Home" - $12.2 million
4. "Toy Story 4" - $9.9 million
5. "Crawl" - $4 million
6. "Yesterday" - $3 million
7. "Aladdin" - $2.8 million
8. "Stuber" - $1.7 million
9. "Annabelle Comes Home" - $1.56 million
10. "The Farewell" - $1.55 million