As the year comes to an end, Disney will probably be the ones to hold the record for the top 3 highest-grossing films of the year. Well, there’s still time before Star Wars: Episode IX hits the theatres but we’ve already got the second name that will be added to this Top 3 list. Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film ever. Now The Lion King will go on to become the highest-grossing Disney original!
The live-action remake brought forward by Jon Favreau has managed to break Disney’s record of becoming the biggest opening for a Disney original film. Disney has acquired Studios like Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar, but all the live-action remakes that Disney has been coming up with are all the properties which Disney owned right from the beginning. And The Lion King has become the real king of all those original properties as well.
The film has opened up with $185 Million at the domestic Box Office. These are the numbers this film made within just 3 days running in North America. It has broken the record of Beauty and the Beast which opened with $174.7 Million. Following these two films are Alice in Wonderland with $116 Million, The Jungle Book with $103 Million and Aladdin bowed to $91.5 million.
Having pulled in $185m, The Lion King has managed to become the second-biggest opening of the year leaving Captain Marvel ($153 Million) behind. As far as worldwide numbers are concerned for The Lion King, the film has managed to make $531 Million upon its opening weekend. Now that’s just insane! It has become the 4th biggest worldwide opening of all time.
The first was obviously Avengers: Endgame with $1.222 Billion in 3 days. To follow it we’ve got Avengers: Infinity War ($640 Million), The Fate of the Furious ($541.9 Million), The Lion King ($531 Million), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($529 Million), Jurassic World ($525.5 Million), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($483.2 Million), Captain Marvel ($455 Million), Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($450.8 Million) and Batman v. Superman ($422.5 Million).
It’ll be interesting to see how strongly this film manages to hold up in the next 2 weeks with the big competition coming in from Hobbs & Shaw. Disney could actually look at numbers somewhere close to $2 Billion if the film doesn’t have a drop more 50%. But $2 Billion could actually be too much to expect. What we can be assured of is the fact that the film could easily go on to make somewhere between 1.3-$1.6 Billion at least.
The animation done in this film is quite amazing as Jon Favreau’s attempt to bring this story in a real-world setting was quite awesome. Nostalgia has played an important role for Disney over the years, and now The Lion King has proven that in the grandest fashion. People of a new generation got to witness the epic tale of the one true King of the Jungle. So, hats off Disney!
Disney’s The Lion King stars Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Billy Eichner as Timon. Here’s the official synopsis:
“Director Jon Favreau’s all-new “The Lion King” journeys to the African savanna where a future king is born. Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub’s arrival. Scar, Mufasa’s brother—and former heir to the throne—has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba’s exile. With help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba will have to figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.”
