(Bloomberg) -- “The Lion King” roared big for Walt Disney Co., opening with $185 million in weekend sales at North America theaters and delivering a long-awaited boost to the slumping domestic box office.

• The live-action remake of the 1994 cartoon classic faced no serious obstacles in its quest for No. 1. Competing family movies like “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “Toy Story 4,” also a Disney feature, have been in theaters for weeks. Analysts were forecasting $185 million to $190 million in weekend sales for the new picture, while the studio expected about $175 million. Either way, “The Lion King” is one of the top debuts of the year.

Key Insights

• “The Lion King” features the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen and Beyonce. It overcame less-than-enthusiastic reviews and helped cement Disney’s remarkable domination of the box office this year.
• Buoyed by movies like “Avengers: Endgame,” “Captain Marvel” and “Toy Story 4,” Disney headed into the weekend with a 35% share of this year’s domestic market, or $2.17 billion in revenue. That’s more than double its nearest competitor, Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal.
• The big take for “The Lion King” gives theater operators an opportunity to climb out of a hole. Sales were down 8.6% for the year through July 14, but Box Office Pro was predicting revenue for the top 10 films this weekend could soar as much as 68%. Shares of the largest theater operator, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., rose 9% on Friday after an analyst said the drop in the stock was “overdone.”

Get More

• See the weekend release schedule here.
• See Box Office Pro’s long-range forecast.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Golum in Los Angeles at rgolum@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Kevin Miller

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