The summer or rather, the year of Disney continues with the arrival of the highly anticipated remake of The Lion King [LIONK]. Featuring several memorable songs by Elton John, the 1994 classic is still Disney’s highest grossing non-Pixar animated film at $422.8 million. While the story remains the same, the visuals have been updated with the latest CG effects that appear live-action. Donald Glover [DOGLO] leads the mostly new cast as Simba, while Beyonce voices Nala and contributes a new song. Children who grew up with the original are now parents with their own children. The nostalgia factor is sky high as seen in the advance ticket sales, which are outpacing the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake that debuted at $174.8 million. However, reviews have been mixed with a Rotten rating from RottenTomatoes. Circling a record 4725 theaters for the widest opening ever, The Lion King could devour $185 million.
Spider-Man: Far From Home [SPID7] should snatch another $23 million in its third outing to cross the $300 million milestone.
Despite good reviews, the horror film Crawl [CRAWL] is likely to drop 50% to $6 million, while fellow sophomore release Stuber [STUBR] looks to tumble more than 55% to $3.5 million.
Bleeker Street expands The Art of Self Defense [TAOSD] to 550 theaters after one week of limited release. The karate comedy could knock down $1.5 million.
That’s the whisper on the virtual trading floor.
Tag(s): LIONK, DOGLO, SPID7, CRAWL, STUBR, TAOSD