While The Lion King may not have been the critical juggernaut Disney was hoping for, there’s no doubt its actual box office performance has made the House of Mouse happy. What’s more, with a verified 88% audiences score on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore, it’s clear audiences have enjoyed with was offered to them by director Jon Favreau.
The film was able to crack $1 billion worldwide with little trouble, and even domestically, it’s sitting at $475 million, beating out Beauty and the Beast’s $432.9 million. But that isn’t the only big milestone it hit. As of this writing, it’s sitting at $1.34 Bn worldwide, beating out Frozen’s $1.28 Bn.
What does this mean? Well, it means The Lion King has taken the crown as the highest-grossing animated film of all time. That’s right. We’re saying it. The Lion King is an animated film, in spite of its live-action aesthetic.
Needless to say, regardless of what critics said about the film, it’s done well to reinforce audiences’ hunger for more of these remakes.