'The Lion King' Could Rule Over The July Box Office

Projections are starting to come in for Disney’s and Jon Favreau “The Lion King” remake, and it seems that the “King” moniker will be as appropriate as ever.

As reported by Variety, early projections have the hotly-anticipated “live-action” adaptation opening to around $150 million, but that number is expected to climb in the coming weeks. As Disney ramps up marketing and hype builds, “The Lion King” could potentially grab the record for the biggest July opening weekend of all time. That record is currently held by “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” which made $169.1 million in 2011.

Giving heat to this possibility are recent reports of “The Lion King” topping presale records for Disney’s live-action remakes. As Deadline reported, the film broke Fandango’s first-day presale record for a Disney release outside of the “Star Wars” and Marvel Cinematic Universe franchises, outpacing the previous record-holder, 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” remake. That film ended up doing a $174.7 million opening weekend when it premiered in March.

“The Lion King” is directed by Favreau and employs the same groundbreaking photo-real effects technology he pioneered in his 2016 “The Jungle Book” remake to bring Pride Rock to life. The film boasts an all-star cast, including Donald Glover, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Seth Rogen, Bill Eichner, Alfre Woodard, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Andre, John Oliver, and James Earl Jones as Mufasa, the sole returning member of the original animated classic’s cast.

The original “The Lion King” was released in the summer of 1994 and went on the gross over $968 million worldwide. Today, it is considered by many to be one of the best films in the Disney canon.

Disney will release "The Lion King" on July 19.