The Lion King Passes Black Panther at Box Office, Becomes Tenth Highest-Grossing Movie Ever

Just like that, Jon Favreau’s The Lion King has become one of the highest grossing movies to ever hit box offices. Through Thursday night, the film has made $1.34 billion worldwide, good enough for the tenth-highest total a film has ever earned. The photorealistic remake of the Disney animated classic continues putting up stronger numbers as it way through its run, with solid numbers flowing in from overseas. Just 36 percent ($484.2 million) of the remake’s total has been made stateside while $863.8m has been made in international markets.

The film’s total haul at the point has already surpassed Black Panther‘s global total of $1.346b, a feat in its own right. With the movie’s theatrical release beginning to slow down, it’s unclear how much further it can make it at the box office. At the moment, it’s likely the film will surpass Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.4b) — but overtaking Furious 7 (1.51b) at eighth place on the all-time top ten might be too large of task.

By now, Favreau’s remake has far surpassed the box office total of of the original animated film from Walt Disney Animation. Over the course of three releases between 1994 and 2011, the first Lion King animated feature ended up grossing $968.5m. It’s now the fifth-highest grossing animated film of all time, behind Disney’s Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, and The Lion King (2019) plus Dreamworks’ Shrek 2.

Favreau has quickly become Hollywood’s go-to filmmaker for all things photorealistic after the success of both The Liong King and The Jungle Book. At the film’s press junket earlier this year, ComicBook.com spoke with Keegan-Michael Key and the comedian-turned-voice actor had nothing but praise for the director.

“Jon’s really adept at being … He’s very versatile,” Key added. “Jon’s very versatile and is very adept at being an actor’s director. So even though I’m aware of the fact that he’s dealing with all the technical stuff, he comes into a recording session with a type of exuberant nurturance. He really wants you to feel what you’re feeling, but he keeps you on a thread though, which is good. He goes, “I need A from you, and I need G from you. You can do anything you want with B, C, D, E, and F, but just get me to G. I trust you.”

The full synopsis for The Lion King can be found below.

“Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny on the plains of Africa. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub’s arrival. Scar, Mufasa’s brother — and former heir to the throne — has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is soon ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba’s exile. Now, with help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba must figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.”

The Lion King stars Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfrew Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyoncé, and James Earl Jones in voice roles.

The Lion King is now in theaters while Black Panther is available wherever movies are sold.