In what was likely driven by a combination of families, scorched summer movie goers looking for some AC, and millennials looking for a '90s nostalgia fix, Disney's The Lion Kingreboot is set to bring in an estimated $192 million by the end of it's soon-to-wrap opening weekend. According to Deadline, this massive figure will give the Jon Favreau-helmed pic the new July record for a domestic opening, launching it past Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which brought in $169.1 million back in 2011.
Breaking it down even further, The Lion King's box office total includes its Thursday debut (which brought it $23 million). From there, it earned $78.5 million more on Friday, and $61.6 million on Saturday. Worldwide, the film has already earned a whopping $531 million worldwide. The opening is one of the top-10 of all time, and Walt Disney Pictures' biggest opening ever.
If it's anything like the original (which it nearly is shot-for-shot wise, though not exactly when it comes to Rotten Tomatoes scores) then a bunch of kids will continue to pester their parents to take them back to the theaters for weeks to come.
The news caps off a massive weekend for Disney, which is now the proud owner of the highest-grossing film ever, after it was announced that Avengers: Endgame officially passed Avatar to claim the title. While The Lion King will have its work cut out for it if it wants to even sniff the record, it's already shaping up to be one of the biggest movies of the year.
