Crawl bites off $1M on Thursday; Lion King debuts in China to $13.4M

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This weekend audiences will once again flock to movies like SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME and TOY STORY 4, but that doesn’t mean the new movie CRAWL won’t take a bite out of the box office either. The alligator-centric horror movie from director Alexandre Aja and producer Sam Raimi locked it’s jaws onto $1 million from Thursday pre-shows and looks to do some better-than-expected business thanks to some great reviews.

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As noted by BoxOffice Pro, the Thursday total for CRAWL comes nestled between similar movies THE SHALLOWS and 47 METERS DOWN, which made $1.3 and $740K, respectively. Both of those movies managed $16 million and $11 million for their opening weekends, and right now early projections are placing CRAWL on track for about $8-10 million, but it could make more now that the reviews are sitting pretty, with it holding an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes (our review here).

The movie’s direct competition, STUBER, is expected to debut at around the same total, making $750K last night. The comedy has star power behind it with the team of Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani, but reviews have been poor at about a 45% on RT (our review here). Adults looking for an R-rated comedy could show out for the movie, but it’s just as likely that same audience may opt-out for a horror movie like CRAWL.

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On the other end of the world, THE LION KING debuted in China one week before it hits theaters in North America, and it started off what’s expected to be a mighty reign with $13.4 million. That’s slightly above the opening of TOY STORY 4’s $13.2 million, and the movie is expected to perform better than any other Disney remake has so far. Current estimates predict the movie could make just as much as $170-$180 million total, which would be above the $150 million total of THE JUNGLE BOOK (also from director Jon Favreau), and well above this year’s ALADDIN ($53 million).

Should LION KING break out as expected, it would be a big chunk of change on top of what is expected to be a massive sum from audiences over here. The movie is expected to make anywhere between $180-$200 million next weekend, with the most positive of predictions saying it could cross $600 million by the end of its run, despite the current lukewarm reviews (ours here).

CRAWL and STUBER are in theaters now, and LION KING is in theaters July 19.