‘The Lion King’ Singer Rejected a $2 Million Check In Favor Of Royalties and It Paid Off

‘The Lion King’ Singer Rejected a $2 Million Check In Favor Of Royalties and It Paid Off. Best known in his youth for providing the singing voice of Young Simba in Disney’s The Lion King, Jason Weaver sat down and shared his story with VladTV.

VladTV asked Weaver how much Disney offered him for his role, which was strictly a singing role for the film as Young Simba. “I remember it was like $2 million,” said Weaver, “You gotta remember, they’re coming off of Beauty and the Beast. They’re coming off of Aladdin. Disney had bread.”

When asked why Jason’s mother decided to push for royalties instead of accepting Disney’s initial offer he explained, “Disney had a reputation for re-releasing stuff. I think at that time they had put out Sleeping Beauty and some of their old catalog from when Walt Disney was alive. They were releasing that stuff when they were releasing the new Disney stuff, so she was able to see the playing field and go, ‘Wait a minute, this is going to make a lot of money over time, so what happens when my son turns 40? Is he going to be able to get a check for this when they eventually re-release this?’”

Instead of taking the $2 Million check, Weaver’s Mother and Talent Agent worked together to negotiate with Disney and settled on a $100,000 check initially, with royalties for Weaver in the future. Jason says that since the films release he has more than made up for the $1.9 Million gap between the two offers and is still receiving checks for his work. Jason has even received money from the royalties after the release of The Lion King (2019) remake this year and is more than happy that his mother had the insight and wisdom to play “the long game” on his behalf.

You can check out the full interview between VladTV and Jason Weaver below:

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Photo Credit: Disney/VladTV

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