Make way for the king. The Lion King, that is. In a cinematic landscape pocked with violent newcomers and tired holdovers, Disney’s classic story of a pad-footed prince—this time told in 3-D—roared to the top of the heap this week with a $29.3 million North American take. Add that tally to The Lion King’s previous $357 million domestic gross, and Simba could forego squabbles with his nasty uncle and simply buy the savannah outright.
I’m not a big booster of 3-D retakes, but the fact Disney decided to re-release The Lion King with a third dimension was good news for families this go-round: There was precious little else for them to see.
Last week’s champ Contagion managed to cling to life for another week, collecting $14.5 million for second place. Drive, a slick-but-brutal R-rated thriller, performed an e-brake slide into third and an $11 million payday. Straw Dogs, another violent new release, proved to be a straw man at the theaters, making a meager $5 million to take fifth place—more than a million dollars behind the endearing (and enduring) The Help. All told, both Drive and Straw Dogs may not have made enough to cover their fake blood expenditures.
Am I sad about this? Truth be told, I am not. I always feel a curious sense of satisfaction when good movies also prove to be the most popular in any given week. The Lion King is unquestionably the best big movie in theaters right now, both in terms of quality and, as my boss Bob Waliszewski is fond of saying, its “family friendliness.” The fact that it made twice as much as most box-office prognosticators thought it would makes the week all that more satisfying.
It won’t last, of course. Four new movies are rolling wide next week, and another lucky film will likely claim the box-office crown. They call it the circle of profit.
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