‘Sonic 3’ rings up a huge box office win over the live-action ‘Mufasa’
The ‘Sonic’ franchise continues to be box office gold while Disney’s remake strategy begins to show weakness.
Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of Dec. 20-22, 2024.
1. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Weekend gross: $62M
Total domestic gross: $62M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
If this weekend’s box office battle had taken place in the world of Sonic, it would be game over for Mufasa: The Lion King. And a bunch of Disney’s gold rings would be scattered across theater floors.
The “live”-action Lion King prequel was completely demolished by Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which earned the second highest opening weekend for that franchise, coming in between Sonic the Hedgehog ($58 million) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ($72.1 million). The Sonic franchise is a legit box office force now, reliably putting up these numbers every two years.
A fourth Sonic movie is on the way in 2027. By the time that sequel hits theaters, this should be a billion-dollar franchise worldwide. Paramount’s done a great job building this franchise, rebounding after the original Ugly Sonic backlash and to eventually attract talent like Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves.
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2. Mufasa: The Lion King
Weekend gross: $35M
Total domestic gross: $35M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
If there isn’t at least one tiny, red siren going off at Disney over Mufasa: The Lion King’s opening weekend, there needs to be.
A $35 million opening weekend isn’t a sign that the studio’s live-action remake machine is in a good place. Jon Favreau’s Lion King remake opened with $191.8 million in 2019. A $35 million opening weekend in 2024 is virtually no different from the $30.2 million that John Carter debuted at in 2012 — and that opening weekend was considered a disaster.
If you can’t score a huge box office number off a movie this soulless — Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri noted that “there’s zero inspiration or danger in Mufasa’s fights, tumbles, chases, because its characters exist in a physically accurate, computerized netherworld of safe blandness” — maybe it’s time to stop making these remakes.
