‘The Lion King’ set to eclipse ‘Black Panther’ as the biggest ever movie in SA

The Lion King is less than a weekend away from eclipsing Black Panther as the biggest ever grossing movie in South Africa.

Black Panther, which debuted in early 2018, made R107.5-million locally.

The Lion King‘s 2019 CG remake has made R106.7-million in its seven weeks atop the SA box office, and remained the biggest movie this past weekend, according to data from Filmfinity.

Should it continue this pace, it should eclipse Black Panther in a matter of days.

Black Panther’s immense reign

Black Panther was a 2018 super-hero smash hit set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda.

The film broke a number of records after its release in February, including the highest Saturday box office take in the country’s history at the time.

But The Lion King has been a much more successful movie globally for Disney.

It became the biggest animated movie in history when it eclipsed Frozen in mid-August. It now ranks in seventh place on the all time gross list worldwide, just behind Jurassic: World but ahead of Marvel’s The Avengers.

And after making its debut in July it enjoyed a local first-weekend haul of R24.5-million.

Last week, it became the fourth movie in history to break the R100-million mark in South Africa, joining Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.

Disney still dominates the SA box office

According to Filmfinity, other Disney movies are still on the chart too, including Spider-Man: Far From Home (in seventh place) and Toy Story 4 (about to exit the chart in tenth).

The latest in the Fast & The Furious series, Hobbs & Shaw remained third behind Angel Has Fallen.

A total of three flicks entered the chart, including Once Upon A Time In Hollywood which debuted in fourth this past weekend. Overcomer entered this past weekend’s chart in fifth. Good Boys entered the chart in eighth.

47 Meters Down: Uncaged spent its second weekend in sixth, while Secret Life Of Pets 2 is slowly slid to ninth after six weeks on the chart.

Feature image: Disney Enterprises