'Fast & Furious' spin-off 'Hobbs & Shaw' comes out on top of a competitive weekend at the box office
Universal's "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" is the final big release of the summer, and because of that it had to take on a lot of strong holdovers in theaters this weekend to earn every cent.
But when the dust settled the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson/Jason Statham action movie was tops at the domestic box office with an estimated $60.8 million. Compared to the openings of the main "Fast" franchise, it didn't perform as strong as the recent releases (it's the sixth highest, doing better than the $40 million opening of the first "Fast and Furious" movie), but was on par with last year's late summer release, Paramount's $61 million take for "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." Outside of Disney/Marvel releases, it's the biggest domestic opening of the summer (passing the $56.8 million opening for "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum").
Like most blockbusters these days, it's what's going on internationally that's the true indicator of the kind of business the movie is doing. Over the weekend, "Hobbs & Shaw" earned 120 million overseas, putting its global weekend take at $180.8 million. That's a strong start for a movie with a budget well over $200 million (after counting marketing). The global figure is the biggest opening ever for a movie starring The Rock or Statham, outside of the main "Fast" movies.
In a summer where Disney dominated, this weekend was one of the rare times where the box office was nicely spread out.
Disney's "The Lion King" came in second with $38.2 million, bringing its global total to an astounding $1.2 billion in just four weekends.
While Sony's "Once Upon a Time⦠in Hollywood" came in third place with $20 million, down just 51% from its opening weekend last week. A nice hold for the Quentin Tarantino movie that the studio hopes audiences will continue to flock to through August.
