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Expect to see a lot more live-action remakes of Disney animated classics

The Jungle Book is latest example of studio repackaging animated favourites for the Pixar generation; Beauty and the Beast and Alice Through the Looking Glass coming soon, and plenty more expected

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A still from Disney's The Jungle Book. Photo: Disney

Disney’s production line for the coming years will see the company doubling down on live-action remakes or reboots of its animated classics – a strategy that has so far netted more than US$2 billion.

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The latest offering, The Jungle Book, debuted in the United States on April 15 and has extended Disney’s winning streak, grossing more than US$300 million worldwide over the weekend and trouncing the competition in North America.

Over the coming months, Alice Through the Looking Glass and Beauty and the Beast will fill cinemas, and several more adaptations are reportedly in the pipeline.

Even casual movie-goers will have spotted that Disney’s back catalogue of fairy tales has been raided in recent years for money spinners like Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and Maleficent, which made a combined US$2.5 billion.

Shawn Robbins, a senior analyst at BoxOffice.com, said it was “not a stretch of the imagination” to envisage the company revisiting most of its classic animations.

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