The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe finishing the first novel. He completed the sequel by end of 1949, less than a year after finishing the initial book. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" had few readers during 1949 and was not published until late in 1950, so his initial enthusiasm did not stem from favourable reception by the public. While Lewis is known today on the strength of the Narnia stories as a highly successful children’s writer, the initial critical response was muted. At the time it was fashionable for children's stories to be realistic; fantasy and fairy tales were seen as indulgent, appropriate only
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the rest of Europe. Worldwide, "Narnia" earned $745,013,115 marking it the 55th highest-grossing film of all-time worldwide. It had a worldwide opening of $107.1 million, marking Disney's fifth largest opening worldwide (at the time it was the largest). It is the third-largest movie worldwide among those released in 2005 and it currently still remains the highest-grossing movie of the "Narnia" franchise worldwide, and separately in North America and overseas. Finally, it is also the most successful film of Walden Media worldwide. The film opened with $23,006,856 in 3,616 theatres on its opening day (Friday, December 9, 2005), averaging $6,363