The Lion King felt an awful lot of the love tonight…and since its July 19 debut.
Disney announced that Jon Favreau‘s remake will cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office Tuesday, achieving the milestone in just 19 days of release.
The film is the fourth Disney-released film to earn more than $1 billion this year, along with Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, and Aladdin, with the latter hitting that mark just four days ahead of Lion King. This marks a triumph for Disney’s much-discussed remake strategy, despite both Aladdin and The Lion King earning fairly mixed reviews from critics (though an “A” CinemaScore from audiences).
This development ties Disney’s own record of most $1 billion-plus earners in one year, set in 2016 when Captain America: Civil War, Rogue One, Finding Dory, and Zootopia hit the box office milestone. With Toy Story 4 past $900 million worldwide and sure-to-be behemoths Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Frozen 2 still on the way, Disney is poised to shatter that record later this year.
With a packed voice cast including Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Billy Eichner, and Seth Rogen, The Lion King has been stampeding (too soon?) box office records since its release. The film earned the biggest domestic launch ever for a PG-rated film and the highest July opening of all time.
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