17 years later, ‘Lion King’ still roars

Disney animated classic returns to win box-office weekend derby

 By Russ Britt, MarketWatch

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Seventeen years after its initial theatrical release, Walt Disney Co.’s “The Lion King” returned in a new, 3-D format to beat all rivals over the weekend with nearly $30 million in box-office receipts.

Showing in 2,330 theaters, “Lion King” raked in an estimated $29.3 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. Disney’s DIS -0.09%  take was nearly double what some prognosticators had predicted for the weekend.

Hollywood.com box-office president Paul Dergarabedian said the film’s performance was a “total shocker,” as the studio itself had predicted box office of roughly $12 million for the weekend.

“Nobody expected this. This was the most underestimated film opening,” Dergarabedian said. He pointed out “Lion King’s” Saturday gross was $12 million. “That’s what people thought the weekend would be.”

Disney took a chance by re-releasing the film in the 3-D format, since a number of films designed for the 3-D screen have floundered lately, Dergarabedian said.

“This is a good PR coup for the 3-D format,” he said.

“Lion King” also was far ahead of its nearest competitor, the pandemic thriller “Contagion” from Time Warner Inc.’s TWX +0.23%  Warner Bros. unit. “Contagion” made an estimated $14.5 million in its second weekend in theaters.

Fourth place was occupied by another Disney entry, “The Help,” a drama that made $6.4 million in its sixth weekend. The drama, which has shown strong staying power, has made $147.4 million thus far.

“Lion King” is the story of a lion cub exiled from his African kingdom after his father dies who returns to assume his throne. It originally was released in June 1994. It represented the pinnacle of Disney’s revival of its animated unit under the leadership of Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The film made $328 million in domestic receipts at the time, strong enough to land 24th on the all-time list. Worldwide, the film made $783 million, and is 35th on that all-time list.

“Lion King” is the strongest Disney performer of its pre-Pixar films. Only last year’s “Toy Story 3” and 2003’s “Finding Nemo” rank ahead of it in all-time worldwide receipts among Disney animated films.