The King has returned!! Were you one of the loyal Disney fans who went and saw the 'live' action release of The Lion King this past opening weekend? While the movie was not cartoon animated, it still is animated which is why many individuals have a hard time accepting that it is live-action, in reality, it is a photorealistic movie. The whole movie is created through computer-generated imagery (CGI), in fact, only one scene in the entire movie is a real shot, unaltered by CGI. For those who have seen it, what was your thought on the movie, did you enjoy it? Regardless of personal opinions, below showcases how the movie did during its opening weekend.
Disney is doing many releases of the classic, animated movies and turning them into live-action version to attract more viewers. The Lion King was Disney's largest budget live-action movie to date, costing them around $260 million dollars to produce. For comparison, other Disney re-imagined live-action movies released this year included Dumbo and Aladdin, costing the company approximately $170 million and $183 million. This puts The Lion King approximately $83.5 million dollars over the average of the other two movies. Filming and creation for this movie began in 2017 and has been in the works for approximately two years before being released to the general public.
Due to the high movie budget, Disney needs to have a gross income of $520 million dollars just to break even for this movie. At the current moment, the production company is not concerned, because within the last two months, since the release of Aladdin, the film has made a gross income of $900 million. The Lion King is well on it's to making a gross income of $520 million after opening weekend this past weekend.
Domestically, the movie was shown on over 4,700 screens, becoming the widest shown movie to date on an opening weekend. The movie has earned itself a whopping $190 million becoming the best releasing July movie since 2011 when Harry Potter took the title. According to Forbes, this movie equates to the biggest opening for an animated film of all time. The Lion King is the second-largest opening movie of the year, behind Avengers: Endgame.
Regardless of how one liked or disliked the movie, it created hype and interest among many people. The movie is creating revenue for itself and Disney will continue to make live-action movies. Including Mulan and The Little Mermaid which are set to release in the near future. Will you be at those opening weekend releases?
