Box office: ‘Nosferatu’ crosses $50 million mark; ‘Mufasa’ and ‘Sonic’ continue race for first place
Nosferatu crossed the $50 million mark on New Year’s Day, marking a significant box-office milestone and becoming director Robert Eggers highest-grossing film to date. The horror flick surpassed The Northman, which pulled in nearly $35 million in 2022.
Heading into the weekend of Jan. 3 – Jan. 5, Mufasa: The Lion King continues its claw-biting race against Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which narrowly blocked the Disney picture from claiming the top spot last weekend (just $200,000 separated the two). Showing greater holding power, Mufasa is expected to squeak out a first-place finish this weekend with around $20 million. Sonic is expected to drop to second, but it’s going to be close.
NEW RELEASES
Harbin
Director: Min-ho Woo
In 1909, several years after Korea is forced into becoming a Japanese colony, freedom fighters plot the daring assassination of Japan’s prime minister during their quest for independence. The period drama starring Hyun Bin, Lee Dong-wook, and Jeon Yeo-been has a running time of one hour, 48 minutes, and is not rated by MPAA. The film has yet to establish a score on the review aggregator Metacritic, but currently rates 92 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Vermiglio
Director: Maura Delpero
The movie takes place in 1944 Vermiglio, a remote mountain village. The arrival of Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a deserter, into the family of the local teacher, and his love for the teacher’s eldest daughter, will change the course of everyone’s life. The Italian Oscar entry for Best International Feature has a running time of one hour, 59 minutes, and is not rated by MPAA. Reviews compiled by Metacritic show “universal acclaim,” with an overall score of 84 percent.
BOX-OFFICE PREDICTIONS
This week’s two new international entries aren’t expected to shake up the box office. Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will duke it out for first place, while the competition for third may be just as stiff. Nosferatu, Moana 2, and Wicked are all projected to gross somewhere between $10 million to $13 million — so we’ll have to wait for the final receipts to come in. We suspect Wicked becoming available on PVOD could block it from surpassing Moana 2 this week.
Here are Gold Derby’s current box-office predictions for the week ending Jan. 5, 2025:
1. Mufasa: The Lion King
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
3. Nosferatu
4. Moana 2
5. Wicked
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