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The Lion King overtakes Frozen as Disney's biggest animated movie ever

Just ignore the "live-action" technicality.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
2 min read
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2019's The Lion King really is top of the movie kingdom.

Disney

Disney's latest in its line of lucrative "live-action" remakes is setting all kinds of records. After beating its 1994 source material at the box office (what's inflation?), 2019's The Lion King has now overtaken Frozen to become the highest grossing animated movie of all time.

The Lion King hit a worldwide gross of approximately $1.3 billion this weekend to surpass Frozen's $1.2 billion.

How does it fit into the animation category? With its photorealistic computer animation, which largely split critics because it hampered the lions' emotional expression compared to the classic cartoon. Still, that hasn't slowed The Lion King down: It's now also the No. 1 Disney remake ever.

And its run isn't over yet. Part of its success since opening in early July are its huge international numbers. Domestically in the US and Canada, it's still behind the Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory, though it's not far from beating the latter's $486.2 million.

The Lion King stars Donald Glover, Beyonce and James Earl Jones in a story about a young lion avenging his father to dethrone his evil uncle Scar. But let's be honest, mainly you watch for the hilarity of meerkat and warthog duo Timon and Pumbaa.

This year has been incredible for Disney to say the least. It surpassed the box office record set by one single company in July. You can see why: The Lion King joins Disney's Aladdin live-action remake, Avengers: EndgameCaptain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home in the $1 billion club for 2019.

Next up? Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

Oh boy.

2019 movies to geek out over

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