Told ya so.
Last weekend, the press was as eager as Scar to declare that “the king is dead” after Mufasa had a somewhat underwhelming opening. I was baffled by this, as it was clear that Disney didn’t choose to release such a tentpole at that date for the sake of a big premiere. It was all about Christmas, and in that regard, The Lion King did what it always has done: rake in tons of money.
On Christmas Day, Mufasa was king with an excellent gift of $15 million, enough to beat the previous champ Sonic the Hedgehog 3. As things currently stand, the blue blur has the extremely slight edge over Mufasa, with takes of $38 million and $37 million, respectively. Those rankings could easily swap places once actuals come in tomorrow. Also note that Mufasa is actually up from where it was for its opening weekend, which is something that almost never happens. Long live the king indeed.
Now, don’t go anywhere, because we’ve got a lot more to talk about, including four new movies. Sheesh! But first, let’s get into those holdovers. Moana 2, like it or not, is going to somehow beat Frozen’s final tally of $400 million by the end of next week. That’s just bonkers when you consider that Frozen was an absolute pop culture phenomenon, and Moana 2 is a film that everyone agrees is “fine.” Also passing a box office milestone is Wicked: Part One, which crossed the four century mark and is still going strong. Not bad at all since audiences are essentially only getting half a musical, but Universal is apparently tired of making money off it in theaters, as they are…releasing it on digital platforms on Tuesday. Seriously, what the fuck?
Now onto our newcomers. Nosferatu, the R-rated SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off, easily leads the pack with $40 million in the blood bank since opening on Christmas Day (wait, shouldn’t vampires be afraid of a Christian holiday?). That’s an awesome start taking into account how bleak this movie is said to be (SpongeBob isn’t even in it). Nosferatu had some excellent trailers which sold it as a stylish, scary ride (like the marketing for Longlegs, they kept the villain hidden), and it will be interesting to see if it can manage to have long legs given it’s directed by a guy who once made a flick where Robert Pattinson walked William Dafoe around like a dog.
Also seeing solid business is A Complete Unknown, the latest entry in the Walk the Line Cinematic Universe. Obviously this is intended to be a major awards contender, so it’s promising that both critics and filmgoers are having a good time here. So far, the story of the man responsible for that sweet opening sequence in Watchmen has made $21 million.
Elsewhere we have more awards contenders in Babygirl and The Fire Inside, but we’re looking at much smaller numbers for these two. Babygirl is being sold as an “erotic thriller” when really it looks like “Fifty Shades of Grey if it aired on HBO.” It has been dominated by weird headlines like “Nicole Kidman says she had to try very hard not to orgasm on set,” so yeah, this isn’t a movie you are taking grandma to this week (unless of course you have a super cool grandma). Its current tally comes to a total of $7 million since Christmas.
Doing much worse is The Fire Inside, a boxing biopic where the advertising had lines like “what happened to standing up for what you believe in?” and “this is about more than just boxing!” Cynicism aside, I’ve heard this is a good film, but it’s being distributed by Amazon. They sadly don’t care if it’s bombing or not since it will probably be on Prime Video within a month. It has brought in only $4 million, which puts it behind the second week of fucking Homestead. KO.
Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline (note that this is the 5-day chart, which is why Mufasa is on top):
- Mufasa (Dis) 4,100 theaters, Fri $12M (-9%) Sat $13.3M Sun $11.7M 3-day $37M (+4%), 5-day $63.7M, Total $111.4M/Wk 2
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Par) 3,769 (+8) theaters, Fri $12.6M (-50%) Sat $13.5M Sun $11.9M 3-day $38M (-38%), 5-day $59.9M, Total $137.55M/Wk 2
- Nosferatu (Foc) 2,992 theaters, Fri $7.25M, Sat $7.8M Sun $6M 3-day $21.1M, 5-day $40.3M/Wk 1
- Wicked (Uni) 3,177 (-119) theaters, Fri $6.8M (+83%) Sat $6.8M Sun $5.79M 3-day $19.4M (+37%), 5-day $31.7M, Total $424.2M/Wk 6
- Moana 2 (Dis) 3410 (-190) theaters, Fri $6.3M (+7%) Sat $6.4M Sun $5.6M 3-day $18.3M (+39%), 5-day $28.3M, Total $394.2M/Wk 5
- A Complete Unknown (Sea) 2,835 theaters, Fri $3.9M, Sat $4.1M Sun $3.5M 3-day $11.6M, 5-day $23M/Wk 1
- Babygirl (A24) 2,115 theaters, Fri $1.4M, Sat $1.6M Sun $1.3M 3-day $4.39M, 5-day $7.2M/Wk 1
- Gladiator 2 (Par) 1,865 (-532) theaters, Fri $1.3M (+8%) Sat $1.5M Sun $1.27M 3-day $4.1M (-9%), 5 day $6.89M, Total $163M/Wk 6
- Homestead (Angel) 1,769 (-117) theaters, Fri $980K (-66%) Sat $1.1M Sun $990K 3-day $3M (-50%), 5-day $5.2M, Total $12.7M/Wk 2
- The Fire Inside (Amz) 2006 theaters, Fri $653K, Sat $753K Sun $625K 3-day $2M, 5-day $4.33M/Wk 1