Exclusive: Disney’s Box Office Expectations for The Lion King
My inside source has provided me with Disney’s box office expectations for director Jon Favreau’s live-action version of The Lion King.
Disney expects the film will bring in $200 million on opening weekend at the domestic box office and go on to bring in $600 million during its entire run.
The expectations are in line with Box Office Pro’s long range predictions for the film back in May. They predicted the film would open between $180 and $230 million.
However, the expectations might be biting off a little more than they can chew. My source predicts the film will more than likely bring in between $160 and $180 million on opening weekend.
I’m even more skeptical of the film doing that well on opening weekend. Toy Story 4 only had a $120 million opening weekend. Disney’s recent live action performances have also been no where near the $200 million mark or even $160 million mark for an opening weekend. Aladdin had a $91.5 million opening weekend. Dumbo opened to only $45.9 million. Director Jon Favreau’s last outing with a Disney live-action film was The Jungle Book back in 2016. That film had an opening weekend of $103.2 million.
The only real outlier is Beauty and the Beast which had an opening weekend of $174.7 million. The film would go on to gross $504 million at the domestic box office.
The original animated The Lion King film had an opening weekend of $40.9 million. The film would go on to gross $422.7 million at the domestic box office.
In fact, only one film has had an opening weekend of over $200 million and that was Avengers: Endgame, which had a $357.1 million opening weekend. Toy Story 4’s $120 million currently has the third highest opening of 2019.
Critic reviews also don’t look good for the film. Rotten Tomatoes currently has the film sitting at 59% on their Tomatometer while the Metacritic score sits at 57.
The Lion King stars the voice talent of Donald Glover, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Oliver, James Earl Jones, John Kani, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, and Seth Rogen.
What do you make of Disney’s expectations for The Lion King? Do you think the film will be able to hit those marks? Or do you think it will under perform?
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