The Lion King Roars Past $1 Billion at Worldwide Box Office, Fourth for Disney in 2019

After Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Aladdin.

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 31 July 2019 11:14 IST

The Lion King Roars Past $1 Billion at Worldwide Box Office, Fourth for Disney in 2019

Photo Credit: Disney

Simba in The Lion King poster

Highlights

The Lion King released July 19 in cinemas in India
It’s now the biggest film for director Jon Favreau
Disney still has Star Wars: Episode 9, Frozen 2 to come

The Lion King is now a billion-dollar movie, hitting that milestone less than three weeks into its global opening. In doing so, it gave Disney the fourth billion-dollar title for 2019 — after Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Aladdin — which is just further proof of the studio giant's record performance this year, having surpassed its own annual benchmark earlier this week. For Disney, The Lion King is the 22nd film — the 24th, if we are counting releases from Fox, which now fall under Disney's umbrella — to cross that coveted milestone. The Lion King is also now the biggest film for director Jon Favreau, besting The Jungle Book ($966.6 million).

The Lion King Review: A Visual Upgrade, Devoid of the Disney Magic

Of its $1 billion total, The Lion King remake grossed over $361 million (about Rs. 2,485 crores) in its home market of the US, with the remaining $638 million (about Rs. 4,392 crores) from the rest of the world. The biggest markets outside of the US for The Lion King are China with $115 million (about Rs. 791 crores), followed by the United Kingdom with $48 million (about Rs. 330 crores), and Brazil with $44 million (about Rs. 303 crores). In India, The Lion King had earned Rs. 136.04 crores (about $19.75 million) by the start of Monday, making it the fourth biggest Hollywood film of all time in India, behind Avengers: Endgame (Rs. 437 crores), Avengers: Infinity War (Rs. 294 crores), and The Jungle Book (Rs. 261 crores).

As you can see, those are all Disney releases, with three being from 2019, signalling that the studio is on the rise in India as it turns into a behemoth globally. Disney's total worldwide grosses for the year crossed $7.67 billion (about Rs. 52,806 crores) earlier this week, surpassing its own record from 2016. And there are still five months left on the calendar, with three big releases for the studio in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen II, and Angelina Jolie-starrer Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Given the first of them closes out a nine-film saga and the second is a sequel to the biggest animated film of all time, Disney is (potentially) looking at two more billion-dollar films before the year is up.

The Lion King is released in India in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

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