Christmas Box Office: 'Mufasa' Loses To 'Sonic 3' In Previews

7 hours ago

Forbes

Topline

The third installment in the Sonic franchise easily edged out Disney’s "Mufasa: The Lion King" in Thursday previews on the way to what is expected to be a tight, but ultimately disappointing race for Disney during one of the last weekends of the year.

"Mufasa."

"Sonic the Hedgehog 3" from Paramount grossed $6.5 million in previews Thursday, a franchise best for the Sonic trilogy, and "Mufasa" grossed $3.3 million.

The opening weekend results are expected to be more of the same for the two films, according to Variety, which projects “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” to gross between $55 million and $60 million domestically and “Mufasa: The Lion King” to gross $50 million.

“Mufasa” is releasing internationally at the same time as in the U.S. but “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” won’t premiere overseas until Christmas Day.

"Sonic" is also outscoring "Mufasa" with reviewers—critics have given it an 85% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes while Disney's second run at a live-action "Lion King" has a much lower 55%. "Homestead," a post-apocalyptic indie thriller, also opens this weekend.

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Key Background

Disney’s 2019 live-action remake “The Lion King” grossed $23 million in previews and had a massive $191 million opening. The movie was the second highest-grossing of the year both domestically ($543.6 million) and globally ($1.6 million), and is still the tenth highest-grossing movie ever at the worldwide box office. Despite its impressive draw, "The Lion King" also wasn't loved by critics (it has a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score) and its successor is facing many of the same criticisms, including that the “impersonal, photorealistic animation style” isn't well suited to tell such a story. BBC critic Nicholas Barber slammed “Mufasa” as “pointless” and a “contrived cash-in,” and Irish Times critic Donald Clarke said it has “little character, no visible emotion, just endless show-offy technical competence.”

Tangent

The latest Sonic movie is the third to be released since 2020 and is based on the Sega video game series. "Sonic the Hedgehog" was the third highest-grossing domestic release of 2020 with $146 million and its sequel, "Sonic the Hedgehog 2," grossed $190.8 million to be the tenth best-performing of 2022. Both had opening weekends between $58 million and $72 million, expected to be roughly in line with that of "Sonic the Hedgehog 3."

What To Watch For

Christmas Day releases. "A Complete Unknown," the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet; "The Fire Inside," the true story of female boxer Claressa Shields; and “Nosferatu,” a vampire horror starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgård, all release on the holiday ahead of the last weekend of the year. All three have positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, with "The Fire Inside" taking the cake at 94%.