‘Hobbs & Shaw’ dethrones ‘Lion King’ to top N.America box office

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 14, 2019 Dwayne Johnson (L) and Jason Statham arrive at the premiere of Universal Pictures’ “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” at Dolby Theatre on July 13, 2019 in Hollywood, California. – “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” dethroned “The Lion King” in North American theaters, opening with $60 million over the weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said August 5, 2019. (Photo by KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” dethroned “The Lion King” in North American theaters, opening with $60 million over the weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Monday.

The latest installment in the long-running Fast & Furious franchise features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham facing off against “cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist” Idris Elba.

It ended the box office reign of “The Lion King,” a remake of the 1994 animated film that employs hyper-realistic computer-generated images with a voice cast including Donald Glover as Simba and Beyonce as Nala, together with Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor and James Earl Jones.

“The Lion King” earned $38.5 million on its third weekend, topping director Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” which has earned rave reviews and took in $20 million.

“Once Upon a Time” — the ninth of the 10 movies Tarantino has said he will make before retiring — is set in Tinseltown in 1969 and features Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Al Pacino.

In fourth place “Spider-Man: Far from Home” — which continues where “Avengers: Endgame” left off and stars Tom Holland as the Marvel superhero — took $7.9 million.

“Toy Story 4” was fifth, pocketing another $7.3 million on its seventh weekend in theaters.

The Disney/Pixar animation once again features the voices of Tom Hanks (Woody) and Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear), stalwarts of a franchise that began in 1995.

Rounding out the weekend’s top 10 were:

“Yesterday” ($2.5 million)

“The Farewell” ($2.5 million)

“Crawl” ($2.2 million)

“Aladdin” ($2.1 million)

“Annabelle Comes Home” ($880,000)

© Agence France-Presse