The Fast & Furious franchise has yet again delivered a #1 opener with the franchise spin-off Hobbs & Shaw taking the top spot at this weekend’s box office. Overall the weekend showed improvement over the same weekend last year for the third straight week in a row and on top of Hobbs & Shaw, continued strong performances from The Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the platform release of A24‘s The Farewell helped what has been a bit of a late summer surge at the domestic box office.

Universal‘s Hobbs & Shaw debuted in 4,253 theaters this weekend (the second widest release in the Fast & Furious franchise) with an estimated $60.8 million, which is right in line with the studio’s pre-weekend expectations. The $200 million production also received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences and currently holds a strong, 90% audience score on RottenTomatoes. Of that audience, 58% were male, which lines up with the audience make up for The Fate of the Furious.

Of course, Fate of the Furious opened with $98 million, nearly $40 million more than Hobbs & Shaw, completing its run with $226 million domestically. Should Hobbs & Shaw deliver a similar, 2.29x multiplier we’d be looking at a domestic run right around $140 million, which would make it only the seventh highest grossing in the now nine-film franchise. In fact, outside of the first film in the franchise, the average multiplier for a Fast film is 2.4x, which would mean a domestic run around $146+ million. It will be interesting to see how the film performs next weekend as the marketplace will see a massive five new wide releases hit theaters. While none of the new films particularly target Hobbs & Shaw‘s audience, that’s a lot of new content to go up against when audience interest in this spin-off clearly doesn’t match the enthusiasm for the Fast films featuring the original cast.

Hobbs & Shaw‘s worth, however, isn’t evaluated only on domestic returns as the film launched in 63 overseas markets this weekend with an estimated $120 million, securing a $180 million global debut. The performance is the fifth largest global opening ever for Universal, and tops the $177.8 million global debut for Godzilla: King of the Monsters earlier this year.

The film debuted at #1 in 52 of the markets it opened in, with Russia leading the way with an $8.1 million opening. Additional top debuts include the UK ($7.8m), Indonesia ($7.69m), India ($7.4m), Mexico ($6.96m), Japan ($6.58m), Taiwan ($6.2m), Germany ($5.45m), Australia ($4.89m), Malaysia ($4.67m) and Brazil ($3.9m). Hobbs & Shaw will open in Belgium, France and Italy later this week followed by launches in Korea on August 14 and finally, a debut in China on August 23.

Disney‘s The Lion King also delivered on expectations, dipping -50% with an estimated $38.2 million for a domestic cume that now tops $430 million. Internationally, the film added to its massive global cume with an additional $72 million, pushing its overseas total to $765 million for a global tally topping $1.195 billion. Next weekend the film will launch in Japan followed by an August 21 opening in Italy.

Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood also lived up to expectations, dipping -51% for an estimated $20 million sophomore frame. The performance puts the film’s domestic gross at $78.8 million as it enters its second weekend in release.

Sony also landed in fourth position with Spider-Man: Far from Home, which added another $7.75 million for a domestic cume that now tops $360 million. Internationally, the film added another $9.5 million for a global cume that now stands at $1.08 billion.

Rounding out the top five is Disney and Pixar‘s Toy Story 4, which grossed an estimated $7.15 million as it entered its seventh week in release with a domestic cume that now totals $410 million. Internationally, the animated feature brought in another $10.2 million for an overseas cume that is now just shy of $550 million for a global tally topping $959 million.

Outside the top five, A24‘s The Farewell continues its strong platform run, grossing over $2.4 million from just 409 locations, bringing the film’s domestic cume to $6.8 million. The film will continue to expand throughout August and beyond with no specific word as to when it will finally reach nationwide status.

In limited release, IFC‘s The Nightingale debuted in two locations with an estimated $40,082; Neon‘s Luce debuted with $132,916 from five theaters ($26,583 PTA); Cohen Media debuted Tel Aviv on Fire in 11 theaters with an estimated $50,987 ($4,636 PTA) as well as the 4K restoration of Joan the Maid in one location with an estimated $1,343; Oscilloscope‘s Jay Myself brought in $19,088 from one location after opening on Wednesday, bringing the film’s cume to $27,750; 1091‘s Them That Follow opened in three locations with an estimated $15,000 ($5,000 PTA); and Music Box‘s Piranhas opened at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center with an estimated $3,049.

Next weekend will see a crowd of new wide releases hitting theaters with Paramount debuting Dora and the Lost City of Gold in 3,500 locations; Fox‘s The Art of Racing in the Rain drives into 2,800 theaters; Lionsgate will debut Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark in 3,000 locations; WB will debut The Kitchen in 2,700+ theaters; and Bleecker will introduce audiences in 1,500 theaters to Brian Banks.

via Box Office Mojo

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw	$60.8M	$60.8M	1
	The Lion King	$38.2M	$430.9M	3
	Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood	$20.0M	$78.8M	2
	Spider-Man: Far from Home	$7.8M	$360.3M	5
	Toy Story 4	$7.2M	$410.1M	7
	Yesterday	$2.4M	$67.9M	6
	The Farewell	$2.4M	$6.8M	4
	Crawl	$2.2M	$36.1M	4
	Aladdin	$2.0M	$350.4M	11
	Annabelle Comes Home	$0.9M	$71.6M	6