Hobbs and Shaw Upsets 'The Lion King' To Take #1 Spot At Box Office

The Universal film starring Dwanye Johnson and  Idris Elba, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw earned the franchise's eighth #1 spot at the box office with a domestic gross of $60.8 million (£49.38m) on opening weekend.

With a budget of $200 million, Hobbs and Shaws is the franchise's sixth-largest domestic debut but it made the second widest release after 2017's The Fate of the Furious having been screened at 4,253 theatres.

However, in the international market, it hauled in $120 million whilst it is yet to premiere in Belgium, France, Italy, South Korea and China which is one of the major contributors overseas. However, the performance recorded by the film overseas happened to be the fifth-largest recorded by Universal Studios after The Fate of the Furious.

H&S stands to have it oversea earnings boosted by the time it will hit the Korean big screen on August 14 and in largest of all Asia Pacific market, China on August 23. Of course, China's contribution in most cases is only a few million shy of a film would gross domestically.

Having said that, Disney's The Lion King only dropped a place down in the chart with 50.1 per cent drop in domestic gross, nabbing $38.2 million in its third weekend. Nevertheless, it crossed the billion-dollar mark in less than three weeks having a global cume of $1.195 billion.