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| Poster for Aladdin, left, and Toy Story 4. The two Disney films have topped the domestic box office charts over the weekend. Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea |
By Lee Gyu-lee
Two Walt Disney films ― "Aladdin" and "Toy Story 4" ― have swept the domestic box office charts, creating a Disney sensation among moviegoers. Aladdin was number one at the box office in terms of ticket sales over the past weekend with sales of over 900,000, followed by Toy Story 4 with more than 700,000.
The live-action reboot of Disney's 1992 hit animation Aladdin, premiered on May 23, has remained on top of the charts since last week.
As of Sunday, the fantasy musical movie's 8.27 million admissions amounted to a domestic box-office gross of 70.6 billion won ($61 million).
Directed by Guy Ritchie, the live version of the animated film has boosted its quality with realistic computer graphics and strong performances from the main characters singing the famous songs of the original, such as "A whole new world" and "Prince Ali."
A "Sing-along" version of the movie was offered for four days, which drew 600,000 viewers. The special theater set a concert mood for audiences to sing along to the songs in special chairs that moved to the beat.
Thanking the Korean fans, Walt Disney Company Korea released a video of Mena Massoud, who played Aladdin, appreciating Korean moviegoers. "This has been truly amazing, watching the progress in Korea," said Massoud, as he thanked the fans in Korean.
Pixar's longest-running franchise, Toy Story, joined the box office chart later in the month to compete with Aladdin for the top spot.
Toy Story 4 has set a record for Pixar Animation Studio, exceeding one million sales in just four days since it hit local theaters on June 20. The number of tickets sold surpassed 2.25 million over the weekend, showing the same sales speed of Disney's mega-hit film "Frozen."
Directed by Josh Cooley, the movie shows the reunion of Woody and his romantic partner Bo Peep. It not only adds humor to Woody's adventure but also teaches the lesson of what it means to have a friend by your side. Presenting a human's childhood through the eyes of his toys, Toy Story 4 shows the process of growing up and the irreversible changes that people need to adapt to.
The movie proved to be popular even though the third film in the series came out nine years ago. Toy Story 4 soon topped the North American box office and has been there for two consecutive weeks. The total gross globally accounts for 496 million dollars, making the fourth film the highest-grossing of all the Toy Story series in 10 days, according to Walt Disney Company Korea.
Disney is also putting high-hopes on adding to the success to this year with a photo-realistic computer animated remake of the musical cartoon "The Lion King," set to be released on July 17.
