“When they offered that deal, it was really just to take this money and go,” Weaver once told VladTV in a 2019 interview, that’s currently going viral on social media. “I think they knew and forecasted that they were gonna make a sh-t ton of money.”

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. “That amount of money to an average middle-class family in Chicago in the early 90s… that’s something,” he said.

But his mom and manager, Marilyn “Kitty” Haywood, wasn’t dazzled. 

Instead, she negotiated for royalties and about $100,000 upfront. And three decades on, the now 47-year-old I Just Can’t Wait to Be King singer is still getting paid—and has since made more than the $2 million he rejected. 

“If she hadn’t done that, that would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my career,” he added.

Why Weaver’s mom turned down $2 million from Disney for The Lion King

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

“She 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?” Weaver recalled. “And sure enough, she was absolutely right.”

It was a risky ask at the time. Weaver said that Disney wasn’t doing royalty deals for newcomers back then, only for “established huge pop stars.” But Haywood wasn’t new to the entertainment business. She sang with the Chicago group Kitty & the Haywoods, and backed Aretha Franklin—and 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.

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. “Hundreds of, if not billions of dollars that they made off of this franchise,” as Weaver put it.

Taking the cash upfront would have meant missing out on all of it.

Plus, her gamble didn’t just beat Disney’s first offer. It gave Weaver—who admits that as a teenager, he probably would have blown the millions—an income that’s still paying out. Hand a 13-year-old $2 million and it could be gone before he’s even old enough to drive. “I wasn’t thinking about a portfolio, or diversifying,” Weaver said. 

What Jason Weaver did after The Lion King—and his net worth today 

After lending his vocal cords to Disney, Weaver went on to star in two sitcoms, Thea (1993–94) and Smart Guy (1997–99), where he played Marcus Henderson. He also landed film roles in Drumline, The Ladykillers, and ATL, and more recently in The Chi and Sistas.

He kept singing too. His debut album, Love Ambition, came out on Motown in 1995, and in 2004 he featured on Chingy’s “One Call Away,” which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Weaver hasn’t disclosed his net worth or how much The Lion King still pays him. But he says the royalties keep coming, whether or not he’s got a job on.

The Lion King 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’s worth between $4 million and $7 million. Even at the lower figure, that’s about double the $2 million his mom turned down. 

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.

“When I got my first royalty check, me and my mom thought it was a mistake,” he said. And 32 years later, the checks keep coming—and they won’t stop with him, either: Weaver agreed the royalties could be passed down to his kids, and their kids after that.

“Honestly that income, that residual income that I generate—man that is so helpful,” he added. “Even nowadays, when I get a check, it’s like…yes!”