Movies

Mufasa is King — Weekend Box Office Report for January 3rd-January 5th 2025

Happy New Year!

Our number one movie to kick off 2025 is Mufasa: The Lion King. Last week, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 beat it by just a blue hair over the three-day weekend, but Mufasa reigned over the five-day period for Christmas (by the way, don’t believe those tweets and YouTube videos claiming Disney is “lying” about the box office results, because they’re hyena shit). This time, it’s the singing lions who have the upper paw, with the two films making $23 million and $21 million, respectively.

Are there too many family features playing at once? Both Sonic and Mufasa have had to contend with strong holdovers in the form of Moana 2 and Wicked: Part One, but the latter might finally be succumbing to gravity as Universal has made the frustrating decision to already have it available for digital purchase. Granted, no one is mourning Wicked as it has flown to $450 million, but it’s still money being left on the table that doesn’t need to be. In any case, there is nothing new for kids until Dog-Man at the very end of January.

Sure, I’d watch it…

Elsewhere, Oscar hopefuls Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown are still full of life, as neither outing saw a significant drop. Good on Nosferatu for being to pull off mainstream success when it has some truly grotesque sexual scenes (it’s like the Coppola Dracula, but without the unintended camp), as this is a film in which the vampire has no sex appeal. It is easily Robert Eggers’ biggest movie to date with $69 million so far. Maybe that Labyrinth revamp directed by him will happen after all (wait, what?).

You might have noticed I haven’t mentioned any new wide releases…and that’s because there aren’t any. Next weekend, that’ll be remedied by the opening of the “hotly anticipated” Den of Thieves 2, which is something I guess people were asking for. Will it be enough to dethrone Mufasa and outrun Sonic? Time will tell.

Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline

  1. Mufasa (Dis) 3,925 (-175) theaters, Fri $7.6M (-37%), Sat $9.8M, Sun $6.4M, 3-day $23.8M (-35%), Total $168.6M/Wk 3
  2. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Par) 3,746 (-23) theaters, Fri $6.9M (-45% from prev Friday), Sat $8.9M, Sun $5.3M 3-day $21.2M (-44%), Total $187.5M/Wk 3
  3. Nosferatu (Foc) 3,132 (+140) theaters, Fri $4.25M (-42%), Sat $5.5M, Sun $3.3M, 3-day $13.2M (-39%), Total $69.4M/Wk 2
  4. Moana 2 (Dis) 3345 (-65) theaters, Fri $4.1M (-36%), Sat $4.9M, Sun $3.3M, 3-day $12.4M (-34%), Total $425.2M/Wk 6
  5. Wicked (Uni) 3,287 theaters (+110), Fri $3.33M (-51%), Sat $4.1M, Sun $2.76M, 3-day $10.2M (-48%), Total $450.7M/Wk 7
  6. A Complete Unknown (Sea) 2,835 theaters, Fri $2.6M (-33%), Sat $3.4M, Sun $2M, 3-day $8.1M (-31%), Total $41.7M/Wk 2
  7. Babygirl (A24) 2,164 (+49) theaters, Fri $1.47M (+5%), Sat $1.85M, Sun $1.1M, 3-day $4.49M (even), Total $16.1M/Wk 2
  8. Gladiator 2 (Par) 1,748 (-117) theaters, Fri $870K (-36%), Sat $1.1M, Sun $655K, 3-day $2.65M (-35%), Total $168.8M/Wk 7
  9. Homestead (Angel) 1,700 theaters (-69), Fri $613K, Sat $856K, Sun $634K, 3-day $2.1M(-30%), Total $17.4M/Wk 3
  10. The Fire Inside (Amz) 2032 theaters (+26), Fri $380K (-42%), Sat $531K, Sun $319K, 3-day $1.23M (-37%), Total $7.1M/Wk 2