Box office results: ‘The Lion King 3D’ shocks everyone with huge opening
With over $788 million in the bank worldwide prior to this weekend, “The Lion King” holds the honor of being the most successful hand-drawn animation film to ever being released. Even with that in mind, nobody expected that a re-release (used primarily to promote the movie’s upcoming journey to Blu-Ray) would be as successful as it has been.
Playing on both 3D and 2D screens around the country, “The Lion King 3D” brought in a staggering $8.8 million on Friday — nearly double of what original expectations were for the classic. With this opening in mind (as well as the fact that families will be free all day), estimates are that the film will gross somewhere between $22 and $24 for the weekend — easily enough for it to be #1.
Elsewhere, news varied from decent to just downright bad. “Contagion” only dropped 42% from last Friday (not bad for a thriller movie) to finish in second place, and is set to earn around $14 million in its second weekend. Ryan Gosling’s “Drive” is expected to finish in third place with around $10 million, but the bad news here is that audiences (with a C- CinemaScore) are not liking the movie nearly as much as critics.
As for the bomb of the week, take your pick — neither “Straw Dogs” or “I Don’t Know How She Does It” looks to gross more than $6 million for the weekend, with the latter continuing a bad streak for Sarah Jessica Parker when it comes to movies not featuring Carrie Bradshaw.
Are you planning to visit the movies this weekend?
Photo: Walt Disney Pictures
Xeno
September 17, 2011 @ 4:31 pm
I’m not all that surprised. My son just went to a “Lion King” birthday party. I was confused thinking it must be a sequel, but no – the kids loved it, for most it was their first time seeing it, and it’s always more fun in the theatre with friends than at home on an old DVD.
Danny McGavin
September 17, 2011 @ 2:34 pm
The voluptuous, sexy and talented Christina Hendricks is in two new movies this week – ‘Drive’ and ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’. I hope she only does leading roles from now on. She deserves better than to play second fiddle to Carey Mulligan and Sarah Jessica Parker.
I would have liked to see Stay Cool get a nationwide release. It has an interesting cast with stars who should be doing more mainstream movies – Winona Ryder, Sean Astin, Hilary Duff, Josh Holloway, Jon Cryer, Chevy Chase.
I hope that Drive’s Ron Perlman only does theatrically released films from now on. He is an underrated actor and shouldn’t be doing straight to DVD films.
Straw Dogs marks the only return of James Woods to the big screen since An American Carol (2008) and it is so disappointing that they are showing little to nothing of him in it and he hasn’t been promoting the film. I wish he would do more major films like he used to.