While “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” has soared to the top of the box office charts, “Mufasa: The Lion King” has been trampled in its opening weekend.
Paramount’s third Sonic adventure opened at No. 1 with $62 million in 3,761 North American theaters. Buoyed by positive reviews and strong audience scores, the film surpassed initial estimates of $55 million to $60 million and looks set to remain a holiday hit well into the new year. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” had the worst start of the trilogy, but it actually outperformed the 2020 original “Sonic the Hedgehog” ($58 million in February). It underperformed its sequel (which made a series-high $72 million in March).
“We saw an opportunity in the market in December as we saw the viewership for this series grow and we thought we could stand out,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. . “We were able to accomplish that. ‘Sonic’ will be popular throughout the holiday period.”
Disney’s “The Lion King” prequel “Mufasa” came in second with $35 million in 4,100 theaters, well below its pre-release expectations of $50 million. This is a terrible start for a tent pole that cost more than $200 million to make and about $100 million to promote around the world. Despite the mixed reviews, the film has a few positives, including a solid “A-” CinemaScore rating from audiences and the reality that a December release wasn’t known to bring a strong debut. There is a possibility of salvation. But if word of mouth is positive, the film could last beyond January. (For example, last year’s Wonka prequel starring Timothée Chalamet grossed $39 million, with $218 million in North America and $634 million worldwide.) Mufasa” has a high chance of becoming a big hit. Although it was also a family film overseas, its international box office performance was also lower than expected, grossing $87.2 million compared to $122.2 million worldwide.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” cost $122 million and won’t be released at the global box office until Christmas. Jeff Fowler returns to direct the trilogy, with Ben Schwartz voicing the title character, a swift blue creature with a talent for taking down bad guys, and Jim Carrey as Sonic’s nemesis, a mad scientist bent on world domination. , reprising his role as Doctor Robotnik. The story begins with Sonic and his friends Tails and Knuckles on a mission to stop a mysterious new enemy, Shadow the Hedgehog. The film received an “A” grade on CinemaScore and an average of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Sonic” has established itself as a promising new movie franchise for Paramount, with the first two films grossing a combined $725 million at the global box office and consumer spending from home entertainment rentals and digital purchases. It reached more than $180 million. The property is based on the popular Sega video game series and also inspired the Paramount+ spinoff series “Knuckles,” which debuted earlier this year. Meanwhile, a fourth film is already in development for 2027.
“Over the past five years, ‘Sonic’ has grown into a coveted five-quadrant movie, with an audience of both young and older women,” said David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting firm Franchise. This includes young men, older men, and families.” Entertainment research. “This series is doing everything right.”
“Mufasa” could make a comeback over the holidays, or it could be the latest sign that audiences are tired of Disney’s live-action adaptations of animated classics. Reruns of “The Jungle Book,” “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “Aladdin” were huge commercial hits, while “Mulan,” “Dumbo,” and “The Little Mermaid” fared poorly in theaters. It did poorly at the box office or fell short of expectations. . Disney has two more remakes scheduled for 2025, “Snow White” in March and “Lilo & Stitch” in May, as well as live-action versions of “Moana” and “Rapunzel.” It’s inside.
Mufasa is directed by Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning director of Moonlight and Beale Street, with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda and voice actors Aaron Pierre and Kelvin. -Harrison Jr. stars as Mufasa and Scar. , Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Mads Mikkelsen, Blue Ivy Carter. The film serves as a prequel to director Jon Favreau’s 2019 photorealistic remake of The Lion King. The remake also received mixed reviews, but it grossed an astonishing $191 million at the box office over the summer, and ultimately grossed a whopping $1.66 billion at the global box office. did.
“Audiences love the movies, and family animation has shown great staying power this year,” Gross said. “This story is not over yet. This is a prequel story, and the prequel begins slowly.”
Theater owners hope that will happen, as overall domestic ticket sales remain 4.3% behind 2023 and 23% behind 2019, according to ComScore. The Christmas season will see a slew of adult films, including Searchlight’s Bob Dylan biopic “Complete Unknown,” Focus Features’ remake “Nosferatu,” and A24’s erotic thriller “Babygirl.” She is the only newcomer on the calendar, and it seems to be less festive than usual. Exhibitors typically rely on all-audience fare like “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” to keep multiplexes full. I had the busiest movie-watching days of the year.
This year, most of the four-quadrant movies were released around Thanksgiving, including Universal’s “Wicked,” Disney’s “Moana 2” and Paramount’s “Gladiator 2.” All three look set to continue captivating audiences well into the Christmas period.
“Wicked” rose to third place with $13.5 million from 3,296 venues. The big-budget musical film has grossed $383.91 million domestically and $571 million worldwide in its first five weekends. The film slightly outperformed Moana 2, which added $13.1 million in 3,600 theaters in its fourth weekend on the big screen. The Polynesian animated adventure has grossed a whopping $359 million in North America and $790 million worldwide to date. It is expected to become the third Disney movie to surpass $1 billion this year.
“Gladiator II” dropped to sixth place with $4.45 million in 2,397 theaters, giving it a domestic gross of $153 million. Ridley Scott’s first “Gladiator” sequel in 25 years has grossed $416.2 million worldwide. That’s great for movie theater operators, but less so for Paramount given the huge problems with the Swords and Sandals sequel. A hefty price tag of $250 million.
Elsewhere, Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter,” a superhero spinoff starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Spider-Man’s infamous nemesis, slipped to seventh place with $3.1 million in its second weekend. It was a disastrous 72% drop from its already estimated $11 million. debut. So far, the $110 million-budgeted film has raked in just $17.4 million domestically and $42 million worldwide.
In limited release, A24’s historical blockbuster “The Brutalist” opened for $266,791 on four screens, translating to a solid $66,698 per location. The indie studio said the majority of the first-time audience was under the age of 35, and nearly half of them learned about the Oscar nominees through Letterboxd, a social media platform where users rate, review and discuss movies in general. The 3 hour and 30 minute film (including intermission), directed by Brady Corbet, will open in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles before expanding nationwide in January.
