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‘The Lion King’ bites off $185 million debut, a July record

FILE - This file image released by Disney shows, from left, young Simba, voiced by JD McCrary, Timon, voiced by Billy Eichner, and Pumbaa, voiced by Seth Rogen, in a scene from "The Lion King." 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, July 21, 2019 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, PG-rated films and the ninth highest opening of all time.(Disney via AP, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — 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.

This image released by Disney shows, from left, young Simba, voiced by JD McCrary, young Nala, voiced by Shahadi Wright Joseph, and Zazu, voiced by John Oliver, in a scene from “The Lion King.” (Disney via AP)

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.