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The Lion King Beats Frozen's Record of Being the Highest-Grossing Animated Film of All Time

Aug 15 2019 - 10:50am

THE LION KING, from left:  Mufasa (voice: James Earl Jones), young Simba (voice: JD McCrary), 2019.  Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

Disney's remake of The Lion King [1], which dropped on July 19, made the box office its kingdom during its opening weekend. With a cast full of major celebrities [2] — including Beyoncé, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Seth Rogen [3], and Billy Eichner — we expected the movie to do well, but its growing ticket sales have officially clawed into record-breaking grounds. The film has now managed to surpass the long-standing record held by Frozen, raking in $1.334 billion (as of Aug. 11) at the global box office after opening in Japan, knocking Anna and Elsa and their $1.276 billion out of the top spot, according to Box Office Mojo [4].

Within the first three days of its release, the Jon Favreau-directed visual masterpiece [5] raked in a whopping $185 million [6] from 4,756 North American theaters. This made it the best domestic launch for a PG-rated film as well as the highest grossing film in the month of July. The monstrous profit also meant it had the second-best domestic debut of the year, coming behind Marvel's Avengers: Endgame.

Ironically, news of The Lion King's big opening weekend comes around the same time Marvel Studios — which is owned by Disney — was celebrating Endgame's monumental accomplishment of becoming the number one movie of all time [7], topping James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi fantasy Avatar. I imagine the people at Disney's HQ are having a massive party right now — hopefully while listening to Beyoncé's new Lion King-inspired album [8].


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