Saturday, May 30, 2026

Box Office: “Lion King” Scores $78.5 Mil Friday in Largest Number of Theaters Ever, Despite Poor Reviews

Share

The Lion King rules the box office jungle.

The live action CGI remake received mixed to poor reviews, but it’s hot out and audiences don’t care. They voted with their wallets and gave Jon Favreau’s movie $78.5 million including the $23 million from Thursday.

The guesstimate now for the weekend is $178mil-$200 million depending on how much audiences use movie theaters as cooling centers. With temperatures at 95 degrees, my guess is the high end. Somehow Disney lucks out.

“The Lion King” thus becomes the 10th biggest opening night movie, surpassing “Black Panther.”

Number 2 last night was “Spider Man” with $6 million, and 3 was “Toy Story 4” with $4.3 million.

If you’re looking for a good movie, try “Rocketman” — still in theaters– or “Yesterday.”

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News