Battle at the Box Office 12/23/24
Sonic proved to be the box office king this past weekend, with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 crushing Mufasa: The Lion King in their head-to-head battle.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 opened to $60.1 million, which puts it between the prior two films in the franchise. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 opened with $72.1 million in 2022. Sonic 3 has not opened internationally yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how it does worldwide. Audiences loved the film, getting an A CinemaScore and a 98% Audience Rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mufasa: The Lion King was a distant second with $35.4 million and has to be a significant disappointment for Disney, who were looking to cap off a great 2024 with another win. Projections had Mufasa opening to around $50 million, which would have been disappointing given its $200 million budget, but this could be a disaster if it doesn’t have legs going through the rest of the year. The movie is an absurd $156 million below what 2019’s The Lion King opened with. Mufasa did get an A- CinemaScore, so there’s a chance that families could slowly head out during the post-Christmas/New Year’s time frame. Worldwide, Mufasa has grossed $122.6 million.
Wicked dropped to third place with another $14.1 million, but despite the massive competition in the family market from the two new releases, that’s only a drop of 38% from last weekend. It has $384.5 million domestically and $572.9 million worldwide. It’s currently the third-highest-grossing film domestically of 2024 and the sixth-highest-grossing film worldwide.
Moana 2 and Homestead rounded out the top five. Moana 2 dropped 50% from last weekend and made another $13.2 million, taking it to $359.1 million domestically and $790.2 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing film worldwide for 2024. Homestead, the latest from Angel Studios, made $6 million.
The bottom of the chart saw massive drops as Sonic and Mufasa ate most of the box office dollars. Kraven the Hunter and The War of the Rohirrim both had 70%+ drops in their second weekends, with The War of the Rohirrim making a measly $1.2 million while Kraven made $3 million.
A24’s The Brutalist had the best Per Theater average for the weekend and one of the best averages of 2024, making $66,698 in the four theaters it was playing in.
