Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham are showing solid drawing power as “Hobbs & Shaw” heads for about $57 million in its opening weekend in North America, early estimates showed Friday.
That’s slightly below forecasts, which had been in the $60 million range for the first spinoff from the Fast & Furious universe, which has generated $5.1 billion in worldwide grosses since its launch in 2001. The eighth installment in the franchise, “The Fate of the Furious,” debuted with $98.7 million domestically on April 14-16 on its way to a $226 million North American total.
The third weekend of “The Lion King,” the latest Disney blockbuster, will finish second at about $37 million with about $430 million in its first 17 days — placing the reboot as the 21st highest domestic performers of all time as it passes “Captain Marvel” and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”
Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” should take the third slot at around $23 million, declining 44% following the director’s largest opening to date at $41.1 million for Sony. The Leonardo Dicaprio-Brad Pitt vehicle should wind up the weekend at more than $80 million in its first 10 days.
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“Hobbs & Shaw” is opening at 4,253 sites and stars Johnson as Luke Hobbs and Statham as Deckard Shaw. The Thursday night preview number of $5.8 million is similar to the $6 million figure for “John Wick: Chapter 3,” which opened with $56 million domestically on May 17-19 on its way to $169 million. 2015’s “Furious 7” opened with a franchise-best $147 million and wound up with $353 million domestically.
“Hobbs & Shaw” is launching without franchise stalwart Vin Diesel in his signature Dominic Toretto role. Idris Elba plays the villain, a genetically enhanced anarchist, and Helen Mirren returns to portray the mother of Statham’s Shaw. David Leitch, known for his work on “Deadpool 2,” directed the film from a script by “Fast” vets Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce.
“Hobbs & Shaw” carries a respectable 71% score on Rotten Tomatoes and will launch in 63 markets this weekend including the UK & Ireland, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Japan. The tentpole, which carries a $200 million price tag, took in $25 million in early openings on Wednesday and Thursday in 54 international markets.
The seventh weekend of Disney’s “Toy Story 4” and the fifth weekend of Sony’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” are fighting for fourth in the $8 million to $9 million range. “Toy Story 4” will wind up the weekend with about $410 million in North America while “Far From Home” should have a total of around $360 million