Beyonce fans who owned “The Lion King: The Gift” were pretty much locked in with its release last summer.
Despite Beyonce’s new “Black is King” visual thing on Disney Plus, more fans did not go out and the album from last year.
Last week “The Gift” sold just 5,000 CDs and downloads, a total of 26,000 copies including streaming.
That could be a troublesome number for Disney if it can be compared to the number of subscribers who joined Plus just to see “Black is King.”
It also makes you wonder how many Beyonce fans who were already Disney Plus subscribers have actually watched and listened to “Black is King.” Or understand that “The Gift” is its soundtrack.
I know, that part is confusing. Because Beyonce and her Parkwood Entertainment and Disney haven’t done much to tie the two projects together. Yet, “Black is King” takes all those “Gift” songs, makes new gorgeous videos for them and gives them a story. I know that when I watched the 90 minute video, I appreciated the songs in a whole new way.
But fans are not making that connection. And Sony isn’t doing anything to promote last year’s album since Beyonce cut them out of this project.
In the end, the lion really does sleep tonight.