'The Lion King' remake becomes Disney's fourth $1 billion movie this year

Disney is continuing to streak ahead from the other major movie studios, clocking up its fourth $1 billion (£8,200,000) movie this year.

Jon Favreau's CGI remake of The Lion King has now passed $1 billion at the worldwide box office after being released earlier this month.

The title joins Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel and another Disney remake, Aladdin, in breaking the billion dollar barrier.

It's yet another landmark for the studio, which has smashed its previous annual box office record in just half a year.

In 2016, it made $7.61 billion (£6.23 billion) from its movies, and so far this year, it's already made $7.67 billion in global ticket sales.

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This means that a potential yearly haul of $10 billion by the end of the year could be within its grasp, with big hitting releases including Maleficent 2, Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker still to come in 2019.

Thanks to its acquisition of Fox, Disney productions now dominate 40 percent of the of the US movie market.

CNBC also reported this week that Disney remaking movies from its catalogue has proved to be a massive money spinner.

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It's made $7 billion – around £5.75 billion – in less than a decade by remaking movies from Beauty and the Beast to Alice In Wonderland.

Remakes of The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Lady and the Tramp and The Hunchback of Notre Dame are in the pipeline too.