'The Lion King' bites off $185 million debut, a July box office record

ByLindsey Bahr AP logo
Sunday, July 21, 2019
'The Lion King': Watch new trailer
The April trailer for ''The Lion King,'' out this summer, is packed with moments fans of the original film will recognize.

LOS ANGELES -- The Walt Disney Co. is ruling the box office again with the record-breaking debut of "The Lion King" this weekend.

The studio says Sunday that the photorealistic re-imagining devoured an estimated $185 million in ticket sales from 4,725 North American locations. It's a record for the month of July and PG-rated films, and the ninth-highest opening of all time.

Globally it's already grossed $531 million. No other studio even dared to go up against "The Lion King" with a major release.

In its third weekend, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" fell to second place with $21 million. "Toy Story 4" took third with $14.6 million.

And with an additional $1.5 million from the weekend, "Avengers: Endgame" has officially surpassed "Avatar" as the biggest film of all time with $2.79 billion.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of this station.

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