‘The Lion King’ bites off $185 million debut, a July record
By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — If there was any doubt that the 2019 box office belonged to the Walt Disney Co., this weekend put an end to it. Not only did its photorealistic remake of “The Lion King” devour opening weekend records for the month of July and a PG-rated film, but “Avengers: Endgame” also crept past “Avatar” to become the highest-grossing film of all time.
“The Lion King” this weekend roared into 4,725 North American theaters, where it grossed a stunning $185 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. Although reviews were mixed for Jon Favreau’s remake of the 1994 animated film, audiences still turned out in droves to hear the A-list voice cast, from Beyoncé to Donald Glover, and see the innovative technology that made the film possible.
“We’ve had a spectacular run this weekend,” said Cathleen Taff, Disney’s president of distribution. “We really did know we had something special with (“The Lion King”) given its popularity with fans of all ages.”
Industry experts had pegged “The Lion King” for a $150 million opening, which turned out to be far too modest a projection. Instead, with $185 million, Disney got a few records to boast about: It’s the ninth-biggest opening of all time, a July record (unseating “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”) and a PG-rating record (taking over from “The Incredibles 2”).
It’s the second time this year a beloved Disney brand has overwhelmed a tepid critical response. “Aladdin,” which is still in the top 10 after nine weeks in theaters, has made $989 million globally.
“Certain brands have so much goodwill and equity,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “Reviews clearly didn’t matter at all.”
And, having opened in China a week early, “The Lion King” has amassed over $531 million in just 10 days. Audiences also embraced large format and 3D for the event film: 36% of that total came from 3D showings and $25.2 million from IMAX.
This is just the latest in a long string of wins for Disney, which now holds five of the top six spots for the year. It’s evident even in this weekend’s charts. Five weeks in, “Toy Story 4” is still at No. 3 with an additional $14.6 million (behind “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” which slipped to second in its third weekend with $21 million). The Pixar sequel has grossed $859.4 million globally. “Aladdin” is in 7th place, with $3.8 million.
And then there is “Avengers: Endgame,” which didn’t make the top 10, but that hardly matters. With $1.5 million globally added this weekend, it surpassed “Avatar’s” all-time record, not accounting for inflation.
“Avatar” grossed $2.789 billion worldwide, and “Avengers: Endgame” is currently at $2.79 billion.
“‘Endgame’ finally did it,” Taff said. “It’s a huge achievement.”
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige previewed that this was a sure-thing Saturday night at San Diego Comic-Con.
“You have to shout-out to Mr. James Cameron, who held that title for a long time,” Feige said. “If you adjust for inflation, he still holds the title, and he’ll probably get the title again as soon as he puts out another movie. But for right now … ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is the biggest film of all time.”
This weekend helped knock the year-to-date deficit from 9.1% to 7.2%.
“That’s what a massive Disney debut will do for the box office,” Dergarabedian said. “You’ve got to give some credit to the holdovers that are doing quite well, like ‘Yesterday.’ But it’s just a great weekend for the industry and absolutely a shot in the arm that was needed.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1.”The Lion King,” $185 million.
2.”Spider-Man: Far From Home,” $21 million.
3.”Toy Story 4,” $14.6 million.
4.”Crawl,” $6 million.
5.”Yesterday,” $5.1 million.
6.”Stuber,” $4 million.
7.”Aladdin,” $3.8 million.
8.”Annabelle Comes Home,” $2.7 million.
9.”Midsommar,” $1.6 million.
10.”The Secret Life of Pets 2,” $1.5 million.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/ldbahr

Apollo 11 astronauts reunite on 50th anniversary of moonshot
By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins reunited Friday on the eve of the 50th anniversary of humanity’s first moon landing.
They gathered in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, who got a rundown on his administration’s plans to get astronauts back on the moon by 2024 and then on to Mars in the 2030s.
“We’re bringing the glamour back” to the space program, Trump said.
Both sons of the late Neil Armstrong, the first man to step onto the moon on July 20, 1969, also attended, as well as first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
The moon versus Mars debate as astronauts’ next destination arose again Friday.
The president asked if astronauts could get to Mars without first going back to the moon.
Collins, 88, who circled the moon alone in the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the Eagle, told the president that he supports going directly to Mars and bypassing the moon.
“It seems to me Mars direct, who knows better than these people?” Trump noted.
Bridenstine, though, stressed the importance of the moon as a training ground and noted that because of the planetary alignment, launches to Mars can occur only every 26 months and even then the trip is seven months each way.
“What happens if you miss the timing? They’re in deep trouble? Trump asked. “You don’t want to be on that ship.”
Aldrin, meanwhile, said he’s disappointed with the state of human space exploration the past 10 or 15 years. “We were able to achieve so much early,” the 89-year-old said.
Aldrin, whose specialty was orbital rendezvous, doesn’t like NASA’s idea for a small space station around the moon, called the Gateway, from which to stage lunar landings and, eventually, Mars trips. He noted that the Apollo 11 command module and attached lunar module went straight into lunar orbit and even separated and redocked around the moon.
“We have the No. 1 rocket right now in the U.S. and we have the No. 1 spacecraft, and they cannot get into lunar orbit with significant maneuvering capability,” Aldrin pointed out.
Trump directed Bridenstine to listen to the “other side.”
Aldrin and Armstrong, who died in 2012, landed on the Sea of Tranquility at 4:17 p.m. on July 20, 1969. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,” Armstrong radioed.
Armstrong was the first to climb down the ladder, stepping onto the lunar surface at 10:56 p.m. His “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” is arguably the most famous space line of all time.
The vice president is commemorating Saturday’s anniversary at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, visiting the launch pad where Apollo 11 blasted off.
Museums and towns across the country geared up for their own golden anniversary celebrations, including Wapakoneta, Ohio, Armstrong’s hometown that was serving up “cinnamoon pancakes” and “buckeye on the moon sundaes.” The U.S. Postal Service, meanwhile, issued its “1969: First Moon Landing” Forever stamps Friday at Kennedy.
NASA televised a two-hour show Friday afternoon remembering Apollo 11 but also looking forward to its future moon plans. At the end of the program, Bridenstine revealed the new logo for the moon program, called Artemis after the twin sister of Greek mythology’s Apollo.
Besides Wapakoneta and Kennedy, the program went live to Johnson Space Center in Houston, home to Mission Control; the U.S. Space and Rocket Center next door to Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; and the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
In Houston, Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham said the moon landings will be remembered hundreds of years from now and Armstrong, in particular, will go down in history.
“Here we are 50 years later, and I never in my life could have projected this amount of interest and association with what we were doing back then,” Cunningham said.
In Wapakoneta, former astronaut Don Thomas recalled how he invited fellow Ohioan Armstrong to one of his four space shuttle launches in the 1990s. Not only did Armstrong show up, Thomas said the moonwalker met with him the day before liftoff and promised to stick around as long as it took the shuttle to fly.
“It was the thrill of my life to have him there for the launch,” Thomas said.
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AP reporter Zeke Miller contributed from Washington.
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Follow AP’s full coverage of the Apollo 11 anniversary at: https://apnews.com/Apollo11moonlanding
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the United States’ Moon Landing. Looking for a fun way to celebrate? Join the Beaver County Amatuer Astrologists on Saturday July 20 at Brady’s Run Park Baseball Fields at 7 p.m.

Beaver County Radio News Intern, Kristian Biega, has more on the story…

There will be no manholes in Berkeley, California. City workers will drop into “maintenance holes” instead. Nothing will be manmade in the liberal city but “human-made.” And students at the University of California, Berkeley, will join “collegiate Greek system residences” rather than fraternities and sororities. Berkeley leaders voted unanimously this week to replace about 40 gender-specific words in the city code with gender-neutral terms — an effort to be more inclusive that’s drawing both praise and scorn. That means “manpower” will become “human effort” or “workforce,” while masculine and feminine pronouns like “she,” ”her,” ”he” and “him” will be replaced by “they” and “them,” according to the measure approved Tuesday by the City Council.

Parents in a Pennsylvania school district are being threatened with losing custody of their children if they don’t pay their school lunch debt. A letter was sent to parents in Wyoming Valley West, near Wilkes-Barre. It said the district will take them to court for failing to provide food for their children. The district is owed more than $20,000 by about a thousand families. Legal experts said the letter is legal, but the chances of a child being taken away are slim.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates appealing to progressive voters with a call for “Medicare for All” are wrestling with the thorny question of how to pay for such a dramatic overhaul of the American health care system. Bernie Sanders, its chief proponent, says such a remodel could cost up to $40 trillion over a decade. But his rivals who support his plan have, so far, offered relatively few firm details about how they’d pay for it beyond raising taxes on top earners.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has told federally-funded family planning clinics it may be willing to delay enforcement of a controversial rule that bars them from referring women for abortions. Two people who attended meetings between the Department of Health and Human Services and clinic representatives told The Associated Press officials said there may be more time to comply. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because there is no final decision. HHS says its policy has not changed.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — President Donald Trump says there is “no doubt about it” that a U.S. warship destroyed an Iranian drone, despite Iranian denials that it lost an unmanned aircraft. Trump is speaking from the Oval Office Friday about the incident Thursday in the Strait of Hormuz. His comments come a day after announcing that the USS Boxer took defensive action after an Iranian drone came within 1,000 yards (915 meters) of the warship and ignored multiple calls to stand down.

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida sheriff has launched an internal investigation into wealthy financer Jeffrey Epstein’s time spent out of jail under a work release program after he was convicted of sexually abusing underage girls. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Friday that the inquiry will focus on whether deputies assigned to monitor Epstein violated any rules or regulations while he was out on work release.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats who’ll question former special counsel Robert Mueller next week say they need to “work together” because their time will be limited. Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley serves on the intelligence committee and says he and his colleagues must make the Mueller questioning “as productive as possible.” Democrats want to direct attention to what they see as the most egregious examples of President Donald Trump’s conduct while Republicans say “the American people have moved on.”