LOS ANGELES -- The Walt Disney Co. is ruling the box office again with the record-breaking debut of "The Lion King" this weekend.
The studio says Sunday that the photorealistic remake devoured an estimated $185 million in ticket sales from 4,725 North American locations. It's a record for the month of July and PG-rated films, and the ninth-highest opening of all time. Globally it's already grossed $531 million. No other studio even dared to go up against "The Lion King" with a major release.
In its third weekend, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" fell to second place with $21 million. "Toy Story 4" took third with $14.6 million. And with an additional $1.5 million from the weekend, "Avengers: Endgame" has officially surpassed "Avatar" as the biggest film of all time with $2.79 billion.This image released by Disney shows characters, from left, Mufasa, voiced by James Earl Jones, and young Simba, voiced by JD McCrary, in a scene from"The Lion King."