The Lion King live-action remake has broken a HUGE box office record

It was only released three weeks ago!

Author: Emma DoddsPublished 13th Aug 2019
Last updated 13th Feb 2020

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."

Swipe through to see the cast of The Lion King with their animated counterparts...


Donald Glover as Simba


Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala


Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar


Billy Eichner as Timon, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and John Oliver as Zazu


Alfre Woodard as Sarabi


Keegan-Michael Key as Kamari, Florence Kasumba as Shenzi and Eric Andre as Azizi


JD McCrary as young Simba and Shahadi Wright Joseph as young Nala


NOW WATCH: The Lion King Cast Are Tested On How Well They Know Each Other

If your favourite music icons are the Spice Girls and your favourite Ks are Kylie and the Kardashians, you need heat Radio in your life! heat Radio is portable, so you can listen to us on the move. Simply download our app from your phone’s app store, listen online at heatradio.com and at heatworld.com. We’re on all the smart speakers too, just say “play heat Radio".