The Lion King - Production Photo, Disney Enterprises
Based on its strong opening day performance, Disney’s remake of “The Lion King” should set the all-time opening weekend record for July.
The film amassed an impressive $78.5 million on Friday (with Thursday previews included). Easily enough for #1 on the Friday leaderboard, the figure positions “The Lion King” to close the weekend in the $185-205 million range.
Anything in that range would rank as the best ever for a July release; current record-holder “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” debuted with $169.2 million.
It would also represent one of the ten biggest opening weekends in any month. “Captain America: Civil War,” which currently holds the #10 spot, earned $179.1 million in its first outing.
— Other Top 5 performers on Friday included “Spider-Man: Far From Home” ($6.0 million, #2), “Toy Story 4” ($4.4 million, #3), “Crawl” ($1.7 million, #4) and “Yesterday” ($1.4 million, #5).