Disney's live-action remake of The Lion King was only released in cinemas on Friday 19th July, but it's already broken a huge box office record! The adaptation of the 1994 animated film, which starred Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala and Donald Glover as Simba, has become the highest-grossing animated film EVER.
Overtaking 2013 Disney film Frozen, which swept the world up into a frenzy at the time, earned $1.27 billion (£1.05 billion) at the time, but the 2019 version of The Lion King has earned $1.33 billion (£1.1 billion), according to Box Office Mojo.
This puts the live-action remake of The Lion King the 12th highest-grossing film of all time, and could even apparently overtake both Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Black Panther.
Harry Potter is currently 12th on $1.341 billion (£1.111 billion), and Black Panther is 11th on $1.346 billion (£1.115 billion) - meaning that The Lion King only has to earn another $16 million (£13,252,800). Casual.
This comes after the news that the original animated Lion King could have had a VERY different soundtrack. The music and lyrics were written by Sir Elton John and Tim Rice, but apparently, ABBA were in the running!
According to a report by Polygon, Lion King producer Don Hahn said in the production notes, "It was a real head scratcher for a lot of us. But they [ABBA] couldn’t do it. There were conflicts — they got a tour or a new album they were working on or something. His next idea was Elton John, which to a degree was also a head scratcher because he hadn’t done a musical before."
Can you imagine!
HEAT Lion King cast pics stacked
1 of 8Swipe through to see the cast of The Lion King with their animated counterparts...
2 of 8Donald Glover as Simba
3 of 8Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala
4 of 8Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar
5 of 8Billy Eichner as Timon, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and John Oliver as Zazu
6 of 8Alfre Woodard as Sarabi
7 of 8Keegan-Michael Key as Kamari, Florence Kasumba as Shenzi and Eric Andre as Azizi
8 of 8JD McCrary as young Simba and Shahadi Wright Joseph as young Nala
NOW WATCH: 'We've never met!' we test the cast of The Lion King on how well they really know each other!
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