The live-action ‘Lion King’ reboot was swimming in money this weekend here in America — making it one of the best openings ever … this in spite of critics kind of sh***in’ on it.
Jon Favreau‘s latest re-imagining — he also did the live-action version of “The Jungle Book” in 2016 — hauled in a monster box office number in the North American market over the past few days, making an estimated $185 million … and soaring past expectations.
The huge payday launched ‘Lion King’ into the 9th slot for highest-grossing film ever (under ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ ‘Avatar,’ ‘Titanic,’ and other behemoths at the top) while also marking the largest July opening for a PG flick ever. In short, Disney made lots o’ $$$$$$$$.
The funny thing is … the movie is relatively so-so, according to critics anyway. It’s got a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Megacritic — which ain’t good — but folks still shelled out.
The biggest gripes about Disney’s latest live-action revival is that the lions don’t have any discernible facial expressions regardless of what’s happening — unlike the cartoon, which is very expressive throughout the roller coaster of events (RIP, Mufasa).
Not only that, but the biggest showstopping songs are a shell of themselves, and Beyonce barely gets any screen time — yeah, we’ve seen it … critics are sorta spot-on.
Nevertheless, it appears fond ’90s memories drew moviegoers into theaters and took their cash. Nostalgia did it again.