In a battle of Disney 2019 remakes, The Lion King officially passes Aladdin at the domestic box office after just two weekends. Both titles were integral parts of the studio’s 1990s renaissance, making them ripe for modern re-imaginings as the Mouse House works their way through the vault. Aladdin was at one point thought to be a disappointment (after a relatively lackluster marketing campaign), but it overcame the odds and became one of the year’s biggest hits. It recently passed the $1 billion mark worldwide, becoming the third Disney release of 2019 to do so.
While there were initial doubts about Aladdin’s prospects, there was no such concern for The Lion King. That was always poised to be a monumental hit this summer, as evidenced by the record-breaking numbers posted by the initial teaser trailer. Even when the mixed professional reviews came in, The Lion King was projected to break Disney box office records. It was able to set a number of marks in its debut, and now it’s continuing its rise up the charts.
According to Box Office Mojo, The Lion King won the domestic box office this weekend with $75.5 million, raising its U.S. total to $350.7 million. That tops Aladdin’s haul of $345.9 million. With this development, Disney now has the top 5 spots of the 2019 box office. Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, and Toy Story 4 round out the quintet. With major titles like Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on the way later, Disney’s dominance of the box office will certainly continue.
The Lion King was always a lock to do well commercially, but Disney scheduled it for a window where it would maximize its potential. It’s one of the last true studio tentpoles this summer (Hobbs and Shaw comes out next week), meaning it was facing minimal competition by the time it opened. A number of the June releases tanked and did not have strong legs, while July’s Spider-Man: Far From Home had already done a majority of its damage prior to Lion King. Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which came out on Friday, was highly-anticipated amongst cinephiles but targeted a very different demographic. It had a very successful opening weekend of its own, taking in $40 million domestically. That’s a new all-time high for Tarantino’s career.
Circling back to The Lion King, its global total stands at $962.6 million, meaning it’s only a matter of time before it crosses the $1 billion mark as well. The commercial failure of Dumbo earlier this year seemed to suggest audiences might be beginning to tire of Disney’s remakes, but that proved to be just a fluke. With Aladdin and The Lion King raking in cash, this enterprise is arguably stronger than it’s ever been, so it’s only logical it’s going to continue for the next couple of years. Until Disney runs out of titles to redo, there’s no point to cutting this revenue stream off.
