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With no new wide releases to get in their way, Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 fought for the number one spot on the domestic box office charts for the third weekend in a row. Mufasa narrowly edged out Sonic 3, after coming up short on both previous occasions. The big-budget film grossed an estimated $24 million this weekend, pushing its running domestic total to nearly $170 million. Mufasa has had a mixed run in theaters, after debuting to soft numbers in December. The film made a strong attempt to regain lost ground, but it’s still trailing its predecessor by a wide margin.
Produced on a reported budget of over $200 million, Mufasa is directed by the Academy Award-winning Barry Jenkins, best known for the acclaimed drama Moonlight. The movie serves as both a prequel and a sequel to Jon Favreau’s 2019 remake of The Lion King, which made over $1.6 billion worldwide. Like that film, Mufasa has earned mixed reviews, and currently sits at a “rotten” 55% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. This weekend, the movie is also passing the $400 million milestone worldwide.
On the other hand, Sonic 3 generated an estimated $21 million this weekend, pushing its running domestic total to nearly $190 million. In a day or two, it’ll overtake Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to become the highest-grossing installment of the trilogy, and the second-biggest video game adaptation of all time. Produced on a reported budget of $120 million, Sonic 3 earned excellent reviews, and currently sits at a “fresh” 86% approval rating on RT. The movie is passing the $300 million milestone worldwide this weekend.
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The third spot was claimed by director Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, which registered an admirably low drop this weekend after debuting strongly on Christmas Day. The horror film generated around $13 million, taking its running domestic total to nearly $70 million. Nosferatu will soon overtake Longlegs to become the third-biggest horror movie of 2024. At number four, Disney’s Moana 2 generated a little under $13 million in its sixth weekend of release, and passed the $425 million mark domestically. Despite mixed reviews, Moana 2 has emerged as one of the highest-grossing animated films in history.
The top five list was rounded out by Universal’s Wicked, which generated around $10 million in its seventh weekend of release, despite having debuted on PVOD a few days ago. This takes the film’s domestic haul to $450 million, although Universal has been criticized for jumping the gun on the picture, as it was when it debuted The Fall Guy on digital very shortly after its theatrical debut. Elsewhere, A Complete Unknown passed the $40 million mark to become Searchlight’s biggest hit since the Disney takeover, while A24’s Babygirl actually witnessed a 3% increase in revenue compared to its debut weekend.
Mufasa: The Lion King is in theaters now. Stay tuned to Collider for more box office updates.
Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father Mufasa are explored.
- Director
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Barry Jenkins
- Runtime
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118 Minutes
- Release Date
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December 20, 2024
- Writers
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Jeff Nathanson
, Linda Woolverton
, Irene Mecchi
, Jonathan Roberts
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