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The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news on Friday, just one day after it was announced that Spider-Man: Far From Home (a Sony production but part of the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe) had crossed $1 billion. This marks the first time a film from director Guy Ritchie has reached that mark, which doesn’t come as a massive surprise. What may shock you however, is that this is the first time Will Smith has been a movie to cross the threshold.
Despite mixed reviews, Aladdin got out to a strong start back in May, opening to more than $91 million at the domestic box office. It has hung around in theaters for a couple of months thanks to a few other lackluster releases, allowing it to gross north of $342.5 million here in North America.
Aladdin may have been the first of the Disney Studios proper films in 2019 to make $1 billion but it certainly won’t be the last. The Lion King has only been in theaters for about a week, yet it’s already well on its way to becoming one of the biggest films of the year, perhaps the biggest behind Avengers: Endgame.
The Lion King scored a monumental opening weekend of $191 million domestically, propelling it to a worldwide total of $713 million already. There’s almost no chance the Jon Favreau remake doesn’t hit $1 billion. Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 is also close to hitting the mark, with a current total of $868.5 million.
To top it all off, Disney is just getting started. The House of Mouse has two more sure hits in the bank for 2019 in Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. There’s almost no scenario in which both of those movies don’t pass $1 billion globally, meaning that Disney will probably end the year with seven films above the threshold.
Disney’s Aladdin is still playing in some theaters and will arrive on Blu-ray in September.
