13 Predictions For Next Summer's Biggest Movies
5. The Lion King Makes $1.5 Billion Worldwide
Prediction: If you somehow need any indication of The Lion King's enormous popularity with audiences, look no further than the fact that the 1994 animated classic holds a mind-boggling box office cume of $968.5 million.
When you consider that 1991's Beauty and the Beast made "only" $425 million and last year's live-action version made $1.264 billion, it's hard to imagine Jon Favreau's live-action The Lion King not easily cracking $1.5 billion and possibly surging much higher.
Even with plenty of other high-profile movies releasing around it, The Lion King will surely be a priority viewing for casual moviegoers above every other film releasing within that window.
Why It Might Not Happen: If the movie receives surprisingly bad reviews it could under-perform and hew closer to $1 billion, but otherwise this feels like a lock.