‘Mufasa’ Leaps Past ‘Sonic 3’ To Take Top Spot at Christmas Day Box Office With $14.7 Million

The holiday box office has been known to deliver a twist or two, and it happened again on Christmas Day as Disney’s “Mufasa” is rebounding from a weak $35 million opening weekend to take the No. 1 spot on the Wednesday charts from Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”

Lifted by positive audience word-of-mouth, increased family turnout and support from Imax screens, Barry Jenkins’ prequel to “The Lion King” earned $15 million on Christmas Day, just over double the $7.1 million that it earned on Christmas Eve. Exhibition sources say they believe “Mufasa” will continue to enjoy a lead over “Sonic 3” through the weekend with a projected 5-day extended weekend total of $65 million, enough to bring its domestic total to $115 million.

Though it won’t get anywhere near $1 billion, let alone the $1.65 billion of the 2019 “Lion King” remake, “Mufasa” is shrugging off the threat of becoming a box office flop after a poor pre-Xmas start. Despite being disappointed by that start, Disney insiders say the studio had faith that families that were not able to make it out to the theater before Christmas would turn out for Jenkins’ film.

That faith is proving to be well placed as Disney’s final release for 2024 picks up momentum with $64 million domestic and $197 million worldwide so far.

That success for “Mufasa” isn’t coming at the expense of “Sonic 3,” which continues to hum along with $10.3 million on Wednesday. The video game adaptation now has $88 million domestic and should reach $125-130 million by Sunday as it begins its overseas rollout.

While those family films continue their run, Focus Features is drawing out horror fans with Robert Eggers’ remake of “Nosferatu,” which opened on Christmas Day to $11.5 million from 2,911 locations and is projected by exhibitor sources for a $30 million-plus 5-day opening.

Starring Bill Skarsgard as the fearsome vampire Count Orlok, “Nosferatu” is sharing Imax screens with “Mufasa” this weekend and has current Rotten Tomatoes scores of 87% critics and 76% audience to go with a B- on CinemaScore. Compared to other top indie horror films, that is between the C+ of Osgood Perkins’ “Longlegs” and the B of Damien Leone’s “Terrifier 3.”

Also opening on Christmas Day is Searchlight’s “A Complete Unknown,” James Mangold’s biopic starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan. The film opened to $7.2 million from 2,835 locations and is enjoying strong reception from fans of the folk music legend with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes audience score and an A on CinemaScore.

Finally, Amazon MGM’s “The Fire Inside” earned $1.6 million from 2,006 locations as it is projected for a $6 million 5-day opening. Directed by Rachel Morrison, the film stars Ryan Destiny as boxing legend Claressa Shields, a five-division world champion and the first American to win consecutive boxing Olympic gold medals. It has strong reception scores across the board with a 95% critics and 96% audience RT score to go with an A on CinemaScore.

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