{"id":6353,"date":"2026-10-09T10:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=6353"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:14:19","slug":"disney-offered-a-13-year-old-2-million-to-sing-in-the-lion-king-his-mom-chose-100k-plus-royalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=6353","title":{"rendered":"Disney offered a 13-year-old $2 million to sing in The Lion King\u2014his mom chose $100k plus royalties"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Becoming an overnight millionaire is every teenager\u2019s dream. But when Disney offered 13-year-old Jason Weaver $2 million to sing as young Simba in The Lion King<\/em>\u2014his mom told them no.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhen they offered that deal, it was really just to take this money and go,\u201d Weaver once told VladTV in a 2019 interview, that\u2019s currently going viral on social media. \u201cI think they knew and forecasted that they were gonna make a sh-t ton of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a huge offer for a kid from Chicago. Weaver says his biggest paycheck until then was about $80,000, for playing a young Michael Jackson. \u201cThat amount of money to an average middle-class family in Chicago in the early 90s\u2026 that\u2019s something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But his mom and manager, Marilyn \u201cKitty\u201d Haywood, wasn\u2019t dazzled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, she negotiated for royalties and about $100,000 upfront. And three decades on, the now 47-year-old I Just Can\u2019t Wait to Be King<\/em> singer is still getting paid\u2014and has since made more than the $2 million he rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she hadn\u2019t done that, that would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my career,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Why Weaver\u2019s mom turned down $2 million from Disney for The Lion King<\/em><\/h2>\n

As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. Weaver\u2019s mom said an upfront check could be the last he ever saw from the film. She\u2019d noticed something: Disney kept re-releasing its old classics, decade after decade\u2014a habit that began with the 1944 reissue of Snow White<\/em>. She\u2019d also taken stock that Disney was on a roll: the casting call came hot off the heels of the success of Aladdin <\/em>and Beauty and the Beast.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was able to see the playing field and go, wait a minute, this is gonna make a lot of money over time, so what happens when my son turns 40? Is he still gonna be able to get a check from this when they eventually release this?\u201d Weaver recalled. \u201cAnd sure enough, she was absolutely right.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a risky ask at the time. Weaver said that Disney wasn\u2019t doing royalty deals for newcomers back then, only for \u201cestablished huge pop stars.\u201d But Haywood wasn\u2019t new to the entertainment business. She sang with the Chicago group Kitty & the Haywoods, and backed Aretha Franklin\u2014and she knew that the first offer is rarely the last. If Disney was willing to put $2 million on the table straight away, the film was clearly worth far more.<\/p>\n

She was right. The film has since been turned into a theme park, dolls, T-shirts, video games, and more. Next to it, Haywood said, $2 million looks small. \u201cHundreds of, if not billions of dollars that they made off of this franchise,\u201d as Weaver put it.<\/p>\n

Taking the cash upfront would have meant missing out on all of it.<\/p>\n

Plus, her gamble didn\u2019t just beat Disney\u2019s first offer. It gave Weaver\u2014who admits that as a teenager, he probably would have blown the millions\u2014an income that\u2019s still paying out. Hand a 13-year-old $2 million and it could be gone before he\u2019s even old enough to drive. \u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking about a portfolio, or diversifying,\u201d Weaver said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What Jason Weaver did after The Lion King<\/em>\u2014and his net worth today\u00a0<\/h2>\n

After lending his vocal cords to Disney, Weaver went on to star in two sitcoms, Thea<\/em> (1993\u201394) and Smart Guy<\/em> (1997\u201399), where he played Marcus Henderson. He also landed film roles in Drumline<\/em>, The Ladykillers<\/em>,\u00a0and\u00a0ATL, and more recently\u00a0in The Chi<\/em> and Sistas<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He kept singing too. His debut album, Love Ambition<\/em>, came out on Motown in 1995, and in 2004 he featured on Chingy\u2019s \u201cOne Call Away,\u201d which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n

Weaver hasn\u2019t disclosed his net worth or how much The Lion King<\/em> still pays him. But he says the royalties keep coming, whether or not he\u2019s got a job on.<\/p>\n

The Lion King<\/em> has since grossed nearly $1 billion at the box office, and its 2019 remake pulled in more than $1.6 billion. Meanwhile, estimates put Weaver\u2019s worth between $4 million and $7 million. Even at the lower figure, that\u2019s about double the $2 million his mom turned down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only has Weaver, by his own account, made more than what Disney originally offered him, but he continues to be shocked by how much it pays years on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got my first royalty check, me and my mom thought it was a mistake,\u201d he said. And 32 years later, the checks keep coming\u2014and they won\u2019t stop with him, either: Weaver agreed the royalties could be passed down to his kids, and their kids after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly that income, that residual income that I generate\u2014man that is so helpful,\u201d he added. \u201cEven nowadays, when I get a check, it\u2019s like\u2026yes!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Disney #offered #13yearold #million #sing #Lion #Kinghis #mom #chose #100k #royalties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Becoming an overnight milliona… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6014,9467,1404,2687,9471,800,1151,6703,9470,9469,673,642,6623,27,1749,2591,645,9472,9468,81,2064],"class_list":["post-6353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-100k","tag-13yearold","tag-career-advice","tag-careers","tag-chose","tag-disney","tag-hollywood","tag-how-i-made-my-first-million","tag-kinghis","tag-lion","tag-million","tag-millionaires","tag-mom","tag-money","tag-money-management","tag-offered","tag-personal-finance","tag-royalties","tag-sing","tag-wealth","tag-wealth-management"],"yoast_head":"\nDisney offered a 13-year-old $2 million to sing in The Lion King\u2014his mom chose $100k plus royalties - Finance News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=6353\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disney offered a 13-year-old $2 million to sing in The Lion King\u2014his mom chose $100k plus royalties - 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