‘The Lion King’ Roars at the Box Office — Again
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 9:58 pm
The Lion King
I have my own theory about this. I don’t think it’s because of the 3D conversion. In the old days before videos, Disney re-released its classic animated films every seven years or so because they knew there was a new generation of children who had not seen them. The children of today may have seen “The Lion King” dozens of times on DVD but they have not seen in on a big screen with no distractions. And they have not seen it as an event, a family outing with everyone sitting in the dark enjoying it at the same time. That’s a dimension that goes way beyond anything you can do with fancy glasses.
1. The Lion King 3D — $22.1 million
2. Moneyball — $20.6 million
3. Dolphin Tale — $20.3 million
4. Abduction — $11.2 million
5. Killer Elite — $9.5 million
I think you’re absolutely right. I wish they would go back to re-releasing their films more often. I was Disney age in the dark era of new Disney features, but we got the classics on re-releases.
As for Lion King, there are also not a whole lot of truly family friendly films out right now, I think, so it doesn’t have much competition. Also, while it has been available on video (1995–the copy I own) and DVD (2003), when I was looking for a DVD to use when I was working on my dissertation, I found it hard to come by either in the store or to borrow from friends. If I’m not mistaken, it hasn’t been released since that original 2003 release–though this theatrical re-release is a precursor to the Blu-Ray edition next month–so I think it’s not one that is readily available and there are probably a lot of kids just the right age who haven’t seen it at all–or at least not regularly. Too bad mine still aren’t old enough. 🙂
The Lion King was hardly one of Disney’s better animated movies, but perhaps this success will encourage them to recirculate the good stuff every 7 years again.