"Sonic" Closes Out 2024 Box Office, Narrowly Beating "Mufasa" at $38M

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Mufasa Tops Long Christmas Holiday with $63.8M, but Sonic 3 Steals the Weekend
by Pamela McClintock
December 29, 2024


It looks like there are two Christmas winners.

Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 both get to claim bragging rights to winning the holiday box office crown as a topsy-turvy year at the box office comes to a close — or sort of, anyway.




Mufasa topped the five-day holiday corridor (Wednesday through Sunday) with an estimated $63.8 million, versus an estimated $60.4 million for the Sonic threequel.

There’s a caveat, though. Sonic 3 narrowly beat Mufusa to win the three-day weekend with an estimated $38 million, versus $37.1 million for The Lion King sequel.





Both titles opened last weekend, with Sonic 3 becoming an instant crowd-pleaser and handily beating Mufasa. And on Friday, it raced past the $100 million mark domestically after topping the day with an estimated $12.6 million.

Through Sunday, its domestic earnings were an estimated $137.6 million. Overseas, it launched to a series-best $74 million this weekend from 84 percent of the international marketplace for a global tally of $211.5 million.




During Christmas week, Mufasa rebounded after its disappointing opening as more families became available, but it still lags behind Sonic overall in North America with a domestic total of $113.5 million through Sunday.

Offshore is another matter, where Mufusa stayed atop the chart this weekend with $77.1 million for a foreign tally of $214.5 million and $328 million globally.






Elsewhere, Robert Eggers and Focus Features’ new star-studded vampire pic Nosferatu, one of several films opening nationwide on Christmas Day, posted an impressive five-day opening of $40.3 million, including $21.2 million for the weekend.

That’s well ahead of expectations and one of the best showings ever for a horror pic opening at Christmas. It earned a B- CinemaScore, which isn’t bad for a horror title.




Timothée Chalamet’s critically acclaimed A Complete Unknown, also opening Wednesday, is likewise doing far more than expected and is on course to sing to $23.3 million for the five days.

The film earned a perfect A CinemaScore from audiences (so far, the movie is skewing female and older) and marks Searchlight’s second-biggest opening of all time.






A24’s much-buzzed-about Oscar hopeful Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman, reported a $7 million five-day opening after earning a B- CinemaScore.

The distributor is also handling awards frontrunner The Brutalist, which bypassed a nationwide release in favor of a traditional platform rollout that saw it debut in seven locations over the holiday. The film posted a promising per-location average of $47,547 for the five days.

Amazon MGM Studios’ A Fire Inside, penned by Mufasa director Barry Jenkins, is looking at a $4.3 million five-day opening.




Universal’s Wicked finished the weekend with a global cume of $634.4 million to pass up Mamma Mia! ($611.4 mllion) become the top-grossing stage musical adaptation of all time, not adjusted for inflation.

Wicked — which is making a major awards push — had already achieved that milestone domestically).

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/mo...le-1236095043/






December 27-29, 2024: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 $38,000,000 / $137,552,146
2. Mufasa: The Lion King $37,100,000 / $113,483,537
3. Nosferatu $40,304,475
4. Wicked $19,450,000 / $424,230,535
5. Moana 2 $18,200,000 / $394,605,425
6. A Complete Unknown $23,174,043
7. Babygirl $4,392,538 / $7,240,378
8. Gladiator II $4,150,099 / $163,100,000
9. Homestead $3,190,170 / $12,897,241
10. The Fire Inside $4,331,000