The Lion King 3D Smashes 'Moneyball' at Box Office, Theater Run Extended
"The Lion King" 3D stayed at the top of the box office charts for the second straight week.
The animated motion picture raked in an estimated $22.1 million, according to Hollywood.com. Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball” followed closely behind by taking in $20.6 million. Other new releases to complete the past week’s top five movies were “Dolphin Tale,” which earned $20.3 million, “Abduction,” “Twilight,” and “Killer Elite.”
“The Lion King” only dropped 27 percent in second week sales, shocking even the executives at motion picture studios such as Warner Bros. Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros., which released “Dolphin Tale,” said the success of “The Lion King” was unexpected.
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"I was really kind of amazed at how the 'The Lion King' performed," Fellman said, according to The Los Angeles Times. "Considering that the 3-D version is going out on Blu-ray so soon, many of us expected it to have more of a drop and hoped that some of that money would have fallen into our pockets."
“Dolphin Tale” did not do too badly in its first week. The Alcon Entertainment production grossed an estimated $37 million by telling the story of an actual mammal that lost its tail in a crab trap, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The mammal story was the third to earn an A+ score from moviegoers after “Soul Surfer” and “The Help.” The LA Times reports that the high scoring movies were usually marketed to a faith-based audience.
Although “The Lion King” was supposed to play in theaters for two weeks to prepare for an Oct. 4 Blu-ray release, Disney executives changed plans after seeing the movie’s success.
Dave Hollis, executive vice president of distribution for Disney, told The LA Times that the movie will extend its run in theaters.
"At this point, with a number that's this big, exhibition and consumers have their hands in the air about wanting to see the movie, and we're going to try to meet the demand," Hollis said.
