Weekend Box Office: Sonic 3 easily beats Mufasa, but has a softer opening than expected

The box office battle between Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King came to a pretty definitive end this weekend, with the former almost doubling the latter’s business. Indeed, despite a banner year, Disney’s ending 2024 on a downer note, with Mufasa: The Lion King, which sports a $200 million budget, seriously underperforming with a $35 million opening. Note that the 2019 remake of The Lion King opened with nearly $200 million, making this arguably one of the least successful sequels of all time (although the film is technically both a sequel AND a prequel). 

While Disney is no doubt hoping the decent A-minus Cinemascore will mean the business will pick up over the holidays, it seems unlikely the film will even come close to recouping its budget. The outlook is much rosier for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which easily topped the weekend box office with Deadline reporting a $62 million opening. However, the opening is softer than expected (we pegged it at $70 million) due to a drop-off in business on Saturday. Given the A-Cinemascore rating, it should have done better. What gives? Families may be waiting until Christmas to check this one out, so it may wind up doing incredible business over the next week.

Another interesting thing on the chart is that Wicked has begun to overtake Moana 2 at the box office, thanks to strong repeat business. It was neck-and-neck yesterday, but Wicked wound up grossing $13.5 million to Moana’s $13.1 million. Both movies have been printing money at the box office, with both all but guaranteed to pass the $400 million domestic mark by the end of the holiday season.

Angel Studios also had a stronger-than-expected showing in fifth place, with their post-apocalyptic drama Homestead making $6 million. A feature-length pilot for their new streaming series, the film earned a softer-than-expected B CinemaScore rating, which is low for a faith-based movie. Gladiator II was behind it with $4.45 million and a $153 million domestic haul. It hits PVOD on Christmas Eve. 

Sony’s latest entry into the Spider-Verse, Kraven the Hunter, crashed and burned with $3.1 million in its second weekend, which marks a 72% week-to-week decline. With a $17.4 million total, it’s on track to become one of the least successful superhero movies ever made and one of the year’s biggest bombs.

Red One, now streaming on Prime Video, lost a big chunk of its audience (as well as a third of its theaters) this weekend, with a $1.43 million weekend and a $95 million domestic total. Will it manage to cross $100 million domestically? We’ll have to wait and see!

WB’s animated Lord of the Rings prequel, The War of Rohirrim, also had a disastrous second weekend, falling 72% to $1.2 million and a $7.3 million total. It seems unlikely to even pass $10 million domestically. Finally, the faith-based sleeper hit, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, rounded out the top 10 with $825K and a $38.4 million total.

With Christmas happening on Wednesday, some big movies, including A Complete Unknown and Nosferatu, should liven up the box office charts for what should be a huge week. We’ll keep you posted throughout the holidays with the latest numbers as they come in!