Disney releases live-action remake of The Jungle Book
For the past few years, it seems like Disney simply can’t be stopped when it comes to box office domination, and this past weekend once again proved the power of Walt Disney Studios. With two critically acclaimed movies out in theaters, Disney has now exceeded $2 billion in worldwide box office earnings, and this is the 15th year that they’ve been able to accomplish this goal.
This past weekend, Disney’s live-action remake of their 1967 animated feature, The Jungle Book, made $104 million at the domestic box office and earned over $200 million globally. In some markets, though, the film opened April 7th, so the total worldwide earning for the film is now over $290 million. The film itself had a total cost of $175 million to make, but it seems the studios will have no trouble making back the “bare necessities.” For a Disney film that is PG-rated, an earning of over $100 million is no small feat. Only one other PG-rated Disney film, Alice in Wonderland (2010), was able to surpass $100 million.
The film was close to taking the record for largest April opening, but couldn’t reach the record that Furious 7 had created, which earned $147 million domestically back in 2015. The film has earned the spot for second biggest April opening, which exceeded the expectations of many.
The film, directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Chef), is a remake of the film by the same name that Disney released back in 1967. A young boy named Mowgli, played in the film by Neel Sethi, is raised by wolves, but must escape the jungle in which he was raised after he is threatened by a ruthless tiger named Shere Khan, voiced in the film by Idris Elba (Luther). Along the way, Mowgli meets the meticulous panther, Bagheera, and the happy-go-lucky bear Baloo, voiced by Ben Kingsley and Bill Murray, respectively. However, Mowgli also meets those who want to harm him, namely the hypnotic snake Kaa, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, and the ginormous orangutan King Louie, voiced by Christopher Walken. Many other stars were brought into the project to voice characters, including Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o and the late Garry Shandling, who passed away last month.
With The Jungle Book having an amazing opening weekend, and with Disney’s latest hit animated feature Zootopia, Disney Studios was able to bookend the top five earning films this weekend, with The Jungle Book taking the number one spot and Zootopia at number five, earning just over $8 million in its seventh week in theaters. Zootopia has now earned $307 million domestically.
With many other films about to come out, including the highly-anticipated Captain America: Civil War, Alice Through the Looking Glass, and Finding Dory (all which come out within the next three months), it looks like it’ll be another banner year for Disney Studios.
Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 by Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer