As of today, Disney's reissue of The Lion King in 3D has made north of $80 million.
Not surprisingly, with the film making far more than anyone had anticipated, Disney is ready to give a 3D facelift to two more of their classics, as well as a pair of Pixar films.
Learn which films are being reworked, as well as their scheduled theater release dates, after the jump.
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I admittedly don't get the infatuation with 3D, but hey, I'm clearly in the minority here.
When Disney decided to give The Lion King a 3D update a few years ago, it was a fairly safe bet that it would do alright. They reportedly spent less than $10 million on the conversion, and it was projected to do around $15 million in its first weekend alone.
It ended up pulling in nearly $30 million in its first three days and continued to do strong the following week.
And so begins Disney's mad dash to update and reissue as many of their old successful titles as possible! Earlier today, they announced four titles that are now scheduled to get the 3D overhaul. Two of them are Disney animated classics; the other two are Pixar films that were originally released within the last ten years.
Here's the list and release schedule:
Beauty and the Beast: January 13, 2012Finding Nemo: September 14, 2012
Monsters, Inc.: January 18, 2013 (Monsters University, a prequel to the original, will be released in theaters in Disney Digital 3D on June 21, 2013.)
The Little Mermaid: September 13, 2013
Personally, I'd rather see these films reissued in their original 2D form. Or, even better, I'd love to see Disney concentrate on creating some new soon-to-be-classic animation rather than relying on their back catalog to make a buck.
Hopefully they'll take the profits from these films and dump them into new projects. Or they'll just keep rehashing old titles until they force a 3D version of The Aristocats on us.
I thought 3D was on its way out. Sadly, I was wrong.
