The Lion King remake closes in on $1B, beats original at the box office
Long live the King.
People sure do love Simba.
If you needed more proof nostalgia is an easier sell than something new, here it is: The Lion King live-action remake, released just 11 days ago in the US, has already grossed more at the global box office than the 1994 original. This is according to Box Office Mojo, which has the remake at $999.5 million in revenue, about $60 million more than its source material. It'll almost definitely break the $1 billion mark in the next 24 hours.
The box-office bonanza is in spite of the mixed reaction the new film has gotten from critics: The Lion King (2019) has a Metacritic score of 55, versus The Lion King (1994)'s 88. Note though that the original's box office of $968 million amounts to around $1.7 billion in 2019 dollars after adjusting for inflation.
The Lion King is only the latest Disney remake to cross $1 billion at the global box office, following 2010's Alice in Wonderland ($1.02 billion), 2017's Beauty and the Beast ($1.26 billion) and 2019's Aladdin ($1.01 billion).
Disney is having its best theatrical year ever, with Lion King and Aladdin remakes being just two pieces of a multibillion-dollar puzzle. Disney's superheroes have continued to be super lucrative, with Spider-Man: Far From Home and Captain Marvel both also topping $1 billion. And then, of course, there's Avengers: Endgame, which recently beat Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie ever.
Originally published July 29.
Update, July 30: Adds updated box office information.
