The Lion King movie breaks New Zealand box office records

Kiwis are flocking to cinemas to see the new Lion King film with the live-action Disney reboot enjoying a record-breaking opening at the New Zealand box office.

After opening in New Zealand theatres yesterday, the Jon Favreau-directed revamp of the classic 1994 animated film had the third biggest local opening of all time, finishing just behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the front-running Avengers: Endgame.

The movie also surpassed the local opening day box office of Avengers: Infinity War and claimed the biggest opening yet for a Disney Studio film, with the Motion Picture Distributors' Association of New Zealand revealing it has raked in $1.3 million so far.

It's not the first Disney film to succeed at the box office this year, and New Zealand's overwhelmingly positive response to the Lion King reflects the tremendous success the company is having around the world.

Avengers: Endgame shattered the world record for biggest opening weekend, with an estimated $1.2 billion globally, and Disney holds all but one of the top 12 box-office openings of all time (with Universal's Jurassic World the lone exception).

Following on from the release earlier this year of Alladin and Toy Story 4, Disney's record-breaking run looks set to continue, with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Frozen 2 also on the horizon.

Following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Disney is expected to account for at least 40 per cent of US box-office revenue in 2019, a new record of market share.

It remains to be seen just how high The Lion King will soar, but with cinemas filling up fast around the country and extra screenings being arranged to cope with demand, the sky's the limit.

This article was originally published at nzherald.co.nz and is reproduced here with permission