After only 19 days of release, The Lion King has become the 42nd film to join the fairly exclusive billion-dollar box office club.
The hyper-realistic remake has been firing on all cylinders around the world. In the U.S., the film has taken in $361M. In the foreign markets, the film has taken in $115M in China, $48M in the U.K., and $44M in Brazil.
To say Disney is having a good year would be an understatement. To date, it has had four films break the billion dollar mark: Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, and The Lion King. This has led to a year-to-date record total of $7.67B, beating the studio’s previous record from 2016 of $7.61B.
With five months to go, Disney still has some heavy hitters on the way including Star Wars The Rise of the Skywalker, Frozen 2, and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Seeing as there is only $2.4B to go, and these films on deck, we could be looking at the first $10B year for a studio.
With the success of remakes and reimaginings that Disney is having, there is no doubt that this trend is going to continue. Even though there is the occasional misfire such as Dumbo, there are just too many successes for the studio to change this course. The only real question is what does Disney do when it runs out of the key materials.
Somehow we doubt The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes or The Cat from Outer Space are high on the list of potential remakes. You never know, but they may be some day for lack of anything else being left.
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