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Simba and Mufasa reigned supreme this weekend as Disney’s “The Lion King” dominated box office charts. Director Jon Favreau’s remake of the animated classic collected a massive $185 million from 4,756 North American theaters during its first three days of release.

In yet another win for Disney, the movie landed the best domestic launch for a PG film and set a new record for the month of July. That figure also represents the second-best domestic debut of the year behind Disney and Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” ($357 million). After this weekend, the Buena Vista company now holds five of the top six biggest movies of 2018 so far.

Overseas, “The Lion King” felt the love with $269 million for a global start of $433 million. The film launched in China last weekend and has since earned $98 million, boosting the worldwide haul to $531 million.

Audiences also shelled out to see the hyper-realistic movie in the best quality possible. Imax theaters accounted for $25 million of tickets sold, while 36% of global ticket sales came from 3D screens.

It’s here! Beyoncé’s companion soundtrack to the new live-action Lion King has finally dropped. The soundtrack weaves the voices of Mufasa et al. in with the melodies and polyrhythms of Africa. An extended mix of “MOOD 4 EVA” by Bey, Jay-Z, and Childish Gambino is available exclusively through Tidal. The rest of the album is streaming everywhere. Listen below!

Beyoncé easily set a personal Emmy best yesterday with six nominations for her Netflix special Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, outdoing her double-nominated 2016 visual album Lemonade, and the single nominations she received for 2013’s Super Bowl halftime show (short form entertainment) and special class program with husband Jay-Z for On the Run Tour.

Homecoming received nominations in the following categories:

Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)
“Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live From Liverpool” (CBS)
“Hannah Gadsby: Nanette” (Netflix)
“Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé” (Netflix)
“Springsteen On Broadway” (Netflix)
“Wanda Sykes: Not Normal” (Netflix)

Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special
“Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live From Liverpool,” CBS (Ben Winston)
“Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé,” Netflix (Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Ed Burke)
“Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All In The Family’ And ‘The Jeffersons’,” ABC (James Burrows, Andy Fisher)
“Springsteen On Broadway,” Netflix (Thom Zimny)
“The Oscars,” ABC (Glenn Weiss)

Beyoncé has revealed the tracklist for her new Lion King-inspired album The Lion King: The Gift. Along with several new Beyoncé songs, the LP features contributions from Kendrick Lamar, JAY-Z, Childish Gambino, 070 Shake, Tierra Whack, Pharrell, and more. In addition, there’s a song with JAY and Bey’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Check out the the tracklist and cover art below.

The Lion King: The Gift, executive produced by Beyoncé, is out this Friday, July 19 via Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records.

Ahead of Disney's 2019 live adaption of The Lion King hitting theaters on July 19, Disney Music has released the original motion picture soundtrack.

The soundtrack consists not only of Beyoncé's "Spirit" — an original single that will appear on her own album The Lion King: The Gift, which will accompany the film's release — but also the 2019 rendition of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" featuring vocals by Queen Bey, Donald Glover, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen. (In the film, Glover voices the title role of Simba, and Beyoncé, of course, voices Nala. Eichner and Rogen each play Timon and Pumbaa, respectively.)

The Lion King 2019 soundtrack is currently streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. Physical editions of the release will be available on July 19.

Listen to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and the entire soundtrack below.

Walt Disney announced on Tuesday (July 9) that Beyonce will be curating and producing a new album, The Lion King: The Gift. The album and the film's soundtrack will also include new Bey song called “Spirit.”

The album will feature a number of global recording artists and "steeped in the sounds of Africa," according to the announcement on Instagram.

“This is sonic cinema,” Beyoncé said of the record in a statement. “This is a new experience of storytelling. I wanted to do more than find a collection of songs that were inspired by the film. It is a mixture of genres and collaboration that isn’t one sound. It is influenced by everything from R&B, pop, hip hop and Afro Beat.”

“I wanted to put everyone on their own journey to link the storyline,” she continued. “Each song was written to reflect the film’s storytelling that gives the listener a chance to imagine their own imagery, while listening to a new contemporary interpretation. It was important that the music was not only performed by the most interesting and talented artists but also produced by the best African producers. Authenticity and heart were important to me.”

The Lion King: The Gift is out July 19, along with the live-action film, which features Bey as Nala.

Disney’s The Lion King—starring Beyoncé as Nala and Donald Glover as Simba—is in theaters on July 19. Today, the film’s soundtrack was announced. It’s out digitally on July 11 and physically July 19 (via Walt Disney Records). Pre-order now!

The soundtrack features Beyoncé and Childish Gambino’s rendition of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” which was previewed in a recent teaser.

The soundtrack also includes selections from Hans Zimmer’s score, production from Pharrell (on Tracks 4, 9, 12, and 19), and appearances from Seth Rogen (who voices Pumbaa), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Scar), John Oliver (Zazu), Billy Eichner (Timon), and others.

In addition, there is a brand new Elton John track called “Never Too Late.” John co-wrote the track with Tim Rice; it’s produced by Greg Kurstin. Check out the tracklist, which includes a conspicuous TBA for Track 14, below.

With tickets now officially on sale for The Lion King here at Fandango, we spoke exclusively with director Jon Favreau, who has followed up his work helming the 2016 live-action redo of The Jungle Book with another groundbreaking effort here. He tells us how the highly anticipated new version is different while still honoring both the original movie and the iconic stage adaptation, the challenges of accomplishing such changes, and how the casting bridges the various versions and generations. And yes, he lost his mind over learning Beyoncé would be involved.

Fandango: Beyoncé is obviously a big deal for this movie.

Jon Favreau: Yes.

Fandango: I read that you wanted her involved so bad you were willing to work around her schedule. Did you have to coordinate much in that regard?

Jon Favreau: Sure, she's very busy. She's doing a lot. She was directing Homecoming, making Lemonade, her family got larger while we were working together. And between touring and albums, she really has a prolific career in many areas. She's an artist and a singer and a performer and very involved. She has a lot of things going on. But she's incredibly engaged and committed, and so what was wonderful was that when we did get together to work, she was exceptional, as you can imagine in her performance, but also really gives everything a lot of thought. She's very hard-working and puts a lot of thought into things, and would often be so extremely well-prepared that she was clearly working on a lot on this even when we weren't together.

The 2019 BET Awards were handed out Sunday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Beyoncé was nominated in four categories and won in one:

Best Female R&B/Pop Artist
Beyoncé (WINNER)
Ella Mai
H.E.R.
Solange
SZA
Teyana Taylor

Congrats!

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) celebrated its unparalleled roster of music legends, past and present, at the 34th annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards on Thursday. The event recognized special honorees and the songwriters and publishers of the most-performed ASCAP songs of the past year on the R&B/hip-hop, rap and gospel charts.

Winning Top R&B/Hip-Hop Songs included The Carters' "Apeshit" written by Beyoncé, Kiari “Offset” Cephus, Quavious "Quavo" Marshall and Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter. Congrats!

Shop the beyhive.v1 Collection now at shop.beyonce.com!

Shop Beyonce posted a new video on Instagram that is teasing something new dropping on the website on June 11!

During the recent "Homecoming" For Your Consideration Event, Emmy members recieved promotional DVDs with the film. As we can find out on the back cover of the DVD, Beyoncé has submitted the documentary for the 2019 Emmy Awards in 7 categories! See below.

Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Steve Pamon, Erinn Williams

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has teamed with producer and content creator Steve Jones to broadcast a special on the WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Foundation annual flagship charitable costume event, The Wearable Art Gala, for the first time in its three-year history. Founded by Tina Knowles Lawson and Richard Lawson, the WACO performing arts space located in North Hollywood is described as a creative center where art can truly occur and provides actors, artists, and youth a place to explore their talents.

Taking place this Saturday, the gala theme this year is A Journey to The Pride Lands, a nod to Disney’s upcoming Jon Favreau-directed The Lion King live-action remake which features the voice of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Knowles-Carter serves as the event’s co-chair along with Solange, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. Emmy-winner Tiffany Haddish is master of ceremonies.

The gala also recognizes Tyler Perry and other individuals for their contributions to the entertainment industry and world at large, through their art. Award presenters are Oscar and Emmy winner Viola Davis and author Shaka Senghor.

Jones is the executive producer of the primetime special through his Brand Maverick Entertainment company. This will mark his third collaboration with the network following the docuseries Black Love, one of OWN’s most-watched unscripted series debuts in network history and the Motherly Love special.

OWN Presents: Inside WACO’s Wearable Art Gala airs June 11 at 10pm ET/PT.

WACO Theater will host the Third Annual Wearable Art Gala on Saturday, June 1, 2019. Co-Artistic Directors Tina Knowles Lawson and Richard Lawson founded the event, which is presented by SheaMoisture, to celebrate art and raise funds for the non-profit gallery and performance complex WACO Theater Center.

The theme for the 2019 Gala is A Journey to the Pride Lands, based on the upcoming Walt Disney feature, THE LION KING, opening nationwide July 19th. Gala guests are encouraged to create their own wearable art attire inspired by the ideals of African tradition that are at the heart of the upcoming film which stars Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Alfre Woodard as Sarabi, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar. The film is directed by Jon Favreau and utilizes pioneering filmmaking techniques to bring the treasured characters to life in a whole new way.

WACO Theater center proudly welcomes back beauty and personal care brand SheaMoisture as the Presenting Sponsor for the 2019 Wearable Art Gala. The brand has been a consistent supporter of WACO programs since 2016, working closely with the Center to passionately foster art and education initiatives for underserved youth.

Nominations for the 2019 BET Awards were announced last week. Beyonce is nominated in four categories! The show, which is in its 19th year, airs live from downtown Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater on Sunday, June 23.

Best Female R&B/Pop Artist
Beyoncé
Ella Mai
H.E.R.
Solange
Sza
Teyana Taylor

Best Group
Chloe X Halle
City Girls
Lil Baby & Gunna
Migos
The Carters

Netflix’s critically-acclaimed concert special Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé reached 1.1 million U.S. viewers on its April 17 premiere date, according to data newly provided by Nielsen via its SVOD Content Ratings system.

Introduced in October 2017, SVOD Content Ratings measures the viewership of subscription video on demand (SVOD) services via audio recognition software installed in 44,000 U.S. homes that contain Nielsen's TV set meters. While the highly-secretive Netflix has stated in the past that Nielsen's ratings are “not even close” to being accurate, it is the most reliable measure yet of SVOD viewership data.

According to the numbers compiled by Nielsen, the audience for Homecoming was 63% African American on the day of its premiere and 55% over its first seven days, more than any other Netflix original film or series analyzed to date (the closest was Bird Box with 24%). Hispanics, meanwhile, made up 15% of viewers, while Asians comprised 5%.

Beyoncé recently penned a note in honor of former first lady Michelle Obama as one of TIME’s most influential people.

"Loving Michelle Obama wasn’t much of a choice. It was something that came naturally, because of how she carried herself. Because she resembled us and was moving in spaces where, as black Americans, we weren’t exactly meant to be, she seemed so powerful.

When I first met her, I was embraced by a warm, regal, confident woman who possessed a reassuring calm, on the eve of President Obama’s historic first Inauguration.

The way she looked, walked and spoke, in that warm but authoritative tone, we saw our mothers and sisters. She was strong and ambitious and spoke her mind without sacrificing honesty or empathy. That takes a lot of courage and discipline.

Reaching more female customers has been a top priority for Adidas since 2015, when it announced the company strategy that’s still guiding it today. Then, as now, sales to women were a disproportionately small slice of the total business—as they generally are at big sneaker brands, which historically haven’t designed for or marketed to women anywhere near as much as they have men. For brands that can win them over, women represent a lot of potential dollars.

That’s essentially why Adidas has teamed up with singer and global superstar Beyoncé, CEO Kasper Rorsted acknowledged on a company earnings call today. While the company’s women’s business has been growing strongly, it remains a “particularly strong opportunity for us because it is an underrepresented part of our business… we’re still by no means where we need to be,” he said. “There’s no doubt that Beyonce will help us in this area.” The first limited products from that collaboration will release toward the end of this year, he added.

The singer has a reach few in the world can match. On Instagram alone she has 127 million followers; just for the sake of comparison, mega-star Rihanna has about 70 million. After she and Adidas first announced their partnership, the shots she posted on the social network collectively drew tens of millions of likes and hundreds of thousands of comments. At a moment when pop stars seem to be more effective at selling sneakers than pro athletes, Beyoncé could have a noticeable effect on the company’s sales to women, especially since Adidas has found in the past that people such as influencers are a more effective way to reach women than athletes anyway.

Beyoncé makes her 60th appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as "Before I Let Go (Homecoming Live)" debuts at No. 75 (on the list dated May 4). The single, released April 17 as a bonus track on her Homecoming: The Live Album, bows after its first full week of tracking.

The cover of the 1981 hit by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, which reached No. 13 on the Hot Soul Singles chart (now Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs) enters with 6.9 million U.S. streams in the week ending April 25, according to Nielsen Music. It also starts at No. 28 on Digital Song Sales with 6,000 downloads purchased in the same window.

Though "Go" doesn't yet make the all-genre Radio Songs chart, the single has claimed a fast start at R&B/hip-hop radio, bursting 45-27 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay with 7.2 million in audience in the week ending April 28.

In addition to its Hot 100 start, "Go" also opens at No. 45 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (which, like the Hot 100, blends streaming, sales and airplay data). Homecoming, meanwhile, ascends 7-4 on the all-genre Billboard 200 and 4-2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts following its first full tracking week.