Seventeen years after its first release, “The Lion King” is again No. 1 at the box office, wildly exceeding pre-release projections by pulling in an estimated $29.3 million.
A 3D re-release propelled the G-rated animated feature far beyond its expected $15 million take and well past the weekend’s three debuts -- all of which had disappointing starts.
The No. 2 movie of the weekend was a holdover from last week. The Warner Bros. PG-13 “Contagion" grossed a surprisingly strong $14.5 million -- almost $2 million more than expected.
FilmDistrict's R-rated "Drive," which grossed an estimated $11 million -- at the low end of its $10-to-$15 million pre-release projection -- was the only new movie in the top three.
Also read: Huge Success of 'The Lion King' 3D Re-Release Has Studios Studying Their Libraries
The debut for the Ryan Gosling film followed some of the best reviews of the year for any film (evidenced by a 93 percent Rotten Tomatoes score).
Almost shockingly, however, moviegoers had a very different response, giving it a C-minus grade when polled by movie customer-satisfaction grader Cinemascore.
DreamWorks' PG-13 "The Help" grossed $6.4 million in its sixth week, putting it fourth.
Two other new wide releases had disappointing starts:
Sony's R-rated remake of the 1971 thriller "Straw Dogs" underperformed with $5 million and The Weinstein Company's PG-13 "I Don't Know How She Does It" brought in only $4.5 million.
Despite those unexpectedly low numbers, the weekend's biggest surprise was the spectacular performance of "The Lion King," which grossed twice as much as expected.
On top of the domestic $29.3 million, it grossed $12.1 million internationally. Combine that with its cumulative gross from the last 17 years and the film's total take now stands at $825.7 million. It's the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film of all time and the highest-grossing film from Walt Disney Animation Studios.
It is the first reissue to open No. 1 in 14 years. "The Return of the Jedi," re-released in 1997, was the last. "Lion King" also is now the third-highest grossing animated film of all time, after "Shrek 2" and "Toy Story."
"It's always nice to wake up to better-than-expected results, and this is certainly one of them," Dave Hollis, Disney's distribution chief, told TheWrap Sunday morning.
He said the success is due to the strength of the film and to nostalgia.
"It comes back to the theme of the film -- the circle of life," he said. "You've got kids who saw it and loved it and it became part of their world ... Now they themselves have kids and they're excited about bringing their kids to the theaters to see it the way they remember seeing it -- on the big screen."
But it wasn't just families at "The Lion King."
