Weekend Box Office Report

By Reggie's Take on July 22, 2019

What’s the saying “It’s good to be King”? In this case Disney’s latest pride roared to a great opening weekend while some Marvel heroes take down Avatar.

Disney’s “live action” remake of The Lion King devoured the competition with an estimated $185 million at the North American box office that set a record for the month of July for a PG rated movie and is now the ninth-highest opening for a movie of all time. Globally The Lion King has already earned $531 million.

The Lion King / Disney / 2019

“Spider-Man: Far From Home” in it’s third weekend fell to second earning another $21 million with “Toy Story 4” taking the third spot at the box office with $14.6 million. Disney properties took the top three spots for the weekend of July 19th through July 21st.

Disney and Marvel have something else to celebrate from this past weekend and that’s Avengers: Endgame earning another $1.5 million on its thirteenth week of release. The $1.5 million Endgame earned finally pushed the Marvel movie past James Cameron’s “Avatar” taking over the number one spot as the highest grossing movie of all time.

Avatar held the record for a decade at $2.789 billion, but now Avengers Endgame holds the top spot at $2.79 billion. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige on Saturday at Comic-Con gave James Cameron a shout out for holding the record for so long and even said that Cameron may hold the title again someday.

Avengers: Endgame / Marvel / 2019

Reggie’s Take:
Is it cool that a comic book movie like Avengers: Endgame is the highest grossing movie all time? Sure. Will it last for ten years like it did for Avatar? No.

I’m sure there are some Marvel/comic book fans that would say that Endgame will be number one for years, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. James Cameron’s Avatar 2 is currently scheduled for release on December 17, 2021. Disney now owns Avatar after the acquisition of Fox Studios and I would not be surprised if Disney released Avatar to theaters to re-energize audiences and get some excitement for the upcoming sequel.

By re-releasing Avatar, if Disney decides to won’t take much for the James Cameron movie to retake the top spot. This may matter to fans depending on which movie you prefer, but in the end Disney won’t care, especially since both Avatar and Endgame are Disney properties.