Box Office Report for the Week of December 22

It’s officially the holidays, which means the Christmas Corridor for box office aficionados. Interestingly enough, and for the second year in a row, Disney is not dominating this corridor at all, with Barry Jenkins‘ Mufasa: The Lion King coming in second place with a rather dismal $35 million opening, which wouldn’t be terrible if the film didn’t cost $200 million.

While I personally enjoyed Jenkins’ offering far more than Jon Favreau‘s horrendous 2019 remake of The Lion King, the lingering bad taste of that film is likely felt in an audience that is no longer biting photorealism as a leap forward for cinema if James Cameron does not direct it. Critic reviews have also marginally improved over Favreau’s offering, but this prequel/sequel was dead on arrival, even if the 2019 version made over $1 billion at the global box office.

It’s been an overall solid year for Disney compared to last year. There’s the expectation that 2025 could be even more fruitful for them with the release of high-profile tentpoles such as Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Tron: Ares, Zootopia 2, and, of course, Avatar: Fire and Ash. I may be missing some titles off the top of my head, but these are the ones that you should look out for when it comes to being (potential) financial juggernauts.

Speaking of financial juggernauts, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will absolutely dominate the holiday season. It has already broken franchise records on opening day and ended up a bit below the second film, with a $62 million opening. Still, this is a far more enjoyable and crowd-pleasing affair for families to see during Christmastime than Mufasa: The Lion King, so its five-day cume next weekend may be even bigger than what its three-day opening weekend gross made.

Of course, Wicked and Moana 2 are still going strong, respectively, earning $13.5 million and $13.1 million, while Kraven the Hunter and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim both dropped at 72%, effectively killing their chances at making any profit in cinemas. With so many massive tentpoles to choose from this Christmas (alongside Babygirl and Nosferatu, or Babyratu, as some would call it), the chances of Kraven and Lord of the Rings having an impact over the holidays are fairly minimal.

It’ll be interesting to see how the final week of 2024 plays out at the movies, and there are certainly many titles still left to see, including, for me, Nosferatu, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, Better Man, The Room Next Door, and The Last Showgirl at the top of my list. I’m hoping that Mufasa‘s underperformance will lead to IMAX nixing it for the 27th and expanding the Nosferatu offerings, and potentially also putting Sonic 3 on their screens, especially at such an important time for cinemas.

Still, whatever you choose to see over the next two weeks, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy 2025. The world we live in is quite unpredictable, but I do hope that you, dear reader, your friends, and loved ones will still be able to make the most out of the holidays and have a good time with what you ultimately decide to do.

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Paramount): $62.0M – 3,761 theatres
2. Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney): $35.0M – 4,100 theatres
3. Wicked (Universal): $13.5M (-40%) – 3,296 theatres
4. Moana 2 (Disney): $13.1M (-51%) – 3,600 theatres
5. Homestead (Angel Studios): $6.0M – 1,886 theatres
6. Gladiator II (Paramount): $4.4M (-42%) – 2,397 theatres
7. Kraven the Hunter (Sony/Marvel): $3.1M (-72%) – 3,211 theatres
8. Red One (Amazon MGM Studios): $1.4M (-66%) – 2,002 theatres
9. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Warner Bros): $1.2M (-72%) – 2,602 theatres
10. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Lionsgate): $825.000 (-36%) – 861 theatres

Source: Comscore