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Labor Day box office: Hobbs & Shaw, Lion King edge out Don’t Let Go in slow holiday weekend
Even with a Labor Day weekend now upon us, the box office remains as sluggish as ever, with two genre holdovers—Disney's The Lion King and Universal's Hobbs & Shaw—securing the third and fourth domestic slots with $6.7 million and $6.2 million, respectively. These figures only represent the traditional weekend cycle, as both films are eyeing slightly larger totals once the four-day vacation concludes Monday evening.
Now in its seventh weekend, The Lion King remake (helmed by Iron Man's Jon Favreau) will close out the long holiday with an estimated $8.8 million in North America, where it has taken in $521 million to date. Thanks to $1.562 billion globally, the movie has bested two other major blockbusters—2012's The Avengers ($1.519 million) and 2015's Furious 7 ($1.516 billion)—becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film ever made.
Hobbs & Shaw, the first-ever spinoff project in the Fast & Furious franchise, is expected to close out Labor Day weekend with $8 million domestically. In total, the feature (directed by Deadpool 2's David Leitch) has raked in $158.86 million at home and $684.2 million worldwide.
The only genre newcomer this weekend is Don't Let Go, a Blumhouse Tilt release that stars David Oyelowo as a police officer trying to solve the death of his niece and her parents when he starts receiving time-traveling phone calls from said niece. The film made $2.4 million from 920 theaters in North America during the normal weekend cycle and will cap off Labor Day with around $3 million.
Storm Reid, Byron Mann, Mykelti Williamson, Alfred Molina, Brian Tyree Henry, and Shinelle Azoroh co-star.
Hopefully, the box office gets a much-needed kickstart from the release of It: Chapter Two this coming Friday. The long-awaited sequel is tracking toward a $95 - $110 million debut.
(via Variety & Box Office Mojo)
