The Lion King, The Lion King Re-release | featured news

"Finding Nemo," "The Little Mermaid" and two other animated Walt Disney tales are following "The Lion King" into 3-D mode on the big-screen.

Jaws dropped in Hollywood on Sunday: For the second weekend in a row, a 17-year-old movie, “The Lion King,” was No. 1 at the North American box office. That animated film, re-released by Walt Disney Studios in 3-D, took in an estimated $22 million for a two-week total of $61.7 million, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles ticketing statistics.

It's 1994 all over again, with a re-release of "The Lion King" opening at the top of the box office. A 3-D version of the wildly popular Disney animated musical earned a surprising $29.3 million in its first weekend in theaters, according to Sunday estimates. The original film made more than $40 million when it opened nationwide 17 years ago.

Defying all projections, Disney’s re-release of The Lion King roared its way to a first-day gross of $8.8 million at the domestic box office and is now on course to gross as much as $25 million for the weekend. Lion King easily claimed the top spot over three new films — Ryan Gosling starrer Drive, Sarah Jessica Parker comedy I Don’t Know How She Does It and Rod Lurie’s Straw Dogs remake.