To say that folks are excited to see Beyoncé and Donald Glover take a crack at Disney's Lion King is a profound understatement.
According to Fandango and Atom Tickets, the upcoming "live-action" reimagining of The Lion King is breaking records for straight-up Disney movies (as opposed to properties like Star Wars and Marvel that The House of Mouse owns).
According to Fandango, the first-day sales of advance tickets topped the mark previously held by 2017's Beauty and the Beast. The ticket retailer said that Lion King had the second-best first-day of advance sales of the year behind Avengers: Endgame. The presale just underlines how much of the American blockbuster market is owned by Disney, which owns Marvel and Star Wars as well as Pixar, the company behind recent tearjerker Toy Story 4.
Anticipation of the upcoming movie has reached a fever pitch since the release of a clip showing Bey and Glover singing the iconic duet "Can You Feel The Love Tonight?" Glover said that he signed on to the Jon Favreau project as a way to be a part of something that brings joy to a massive amount of people, to be a part of something he sees as a "global good."
"[The Lion King is] a timeless story, but I think the way Favreau has constructed it, it’s a very timely story as well,” Glover said in a recent interview. "I just wanted to be a part of a global good."
Favreau seemed happy to have the stars willing to take on the project.
"Having Donald Glover and Beyoncé involved, not trying to create new songs but trying to build on what people remember and love about the old ones, has been really fun and formative," he said.
The film drops on July 19. But for those of you who can't wait that long to hear the modern take on the film's classic roster of songs, fear not. Disney has announced that the official soundtrack is out on July 11.
On a more serious note, the studio announced its Protect the Pride campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the protection of Africa's lion population. Watch a promo video for the campaign featuring the film's stars, below.
