You probably saw the movie months ago, but The Lion King is still hanging around at the box office, maintaining a spot in the top five according to Box Office Mojo. Granted, some may argue that’s been due to other movies performing poorly, but Simba is displaying a strong staying power regardless.
To date, The Lion King has made $533 million stateside. By tomorrow night, it will have surpassed The Dark Knight to become the 11th biggest movie ever at the domestic box office (though slipping past the $608 million Incredibles 2 gobbled up last year is unlikely). Things are even better worldwide, where The Lion King is now the seventh biggest movie ever with $1.6 billion, behind only Jurassic World, Avengers: Infinity War, The Force Awakens, Titanic, Avatar and Endgame.
It’s worth nothing that The Lion King has managed to stay in theaters as its competition has been faltering. Dora & the Lost City of Gold was in tenth place this weekend, and now has a “fine” total of $56 million (home video is going to be where this one turns in a profit). The Angry Birds Movie 2, meanwhile, is out of the top ten entirely, with a current tally of $39 million against a $65 million budget (so much for there being a Three Angry Birds down the road).
Next up for the family market is Abominable from DreamWorks Animation on September 27th, followed by The Addams Family on October 11th, while Disney still has a Maleficent sequel down the road with a curious (and even perplexing) October 18th release date.
Final figures are due tomorrow.