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.
The standout performance of Sonic 3 is a major win for Paramount as it prepares to be taken over by new owner David Ellison.
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.
They are hardly the only two movies making noise in what’s turning out to be a very merry Christmas for a flurry of films.
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. The male-skewing movie — starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgard — earned a B- CinemaScore, which isn’t bad for a horror title.
Rival specialty distributor Searchlight Pictures is also smiling. 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 behind Notorious and the biggest since it was acquired by Disney.
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.
Overall, the year-end has been good news for the box office, with the year-over-year deficit narrowing from 11 percent in mid-November to 4 percent now. The bonanza kicked off at Thanksgiving with the potent combo of Moana 2, Wicked and Gladiator II, all of which remain high up on the box office chart.
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).
This story was originally published Dec. 28 at 8:47 a.m.