As Disney continues to take its significant roster of animated classics and give them live-action or photo-real CGI remakes, more skeptical swathes of the public keep asking: why? The obvious answer is that, for the most part, they’re box office dynamite – and if any more proof was needed, Jon Favreau’s new Lion King has already crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office in under two weeks. As it turns out, everything the light touches really is Disney’s.
Since Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin also crossed the $1 billion box office mark recently, The Lion King is now the fourth Disney remake to reach that milestone – with Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland and Bill Condon’s Beauty And The Beast also in the billion dollar club. It also continues a frankly ludicrous year for Disney – not only did Avengers: Endgame just become the biggest film of all time with a $2.793 billion haul, but Captain Marvel also made $1.128 billion, Toy Story 4 is encroaching on the $1 billion mark, and the Sony-produced Spider-Man: Far From Home also made over a billion.
It’s no surprise that Favreau’s Lion King is a huge hit – not only does it revisit one of the most beloved stories of Disney’s ‘90s renaissance period, but it comes bolstered with a starry voice cast including Beyoncé, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner and more. Oh, and it has a tie-in Beyoncé album, which can't hurt. With the film still early in its run, expect it to reign over the box office for a little while yet – though it’s currently facing off Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood in the States, and will face new competition from Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw this week.