Box Office: ‘Mufasa’ Rebounds, Wins Christmas Day Ahead of ‘Sonic 3’ and ‘Nosferatu’
- "Nosferatu," starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, and Bill Skarsgard, is expected to perform strongly with a potential five-day gross of $40 million, exceeding initial projections.
Many were quick to write off Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King when it lost badly to Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 last weekend, but the landscape changed Wednesday as families became more available after holiday duties.
Mufasa topped the Christmas day chart with $15 million, followed by filmmaker Robert Eggers' new star-studded vampire pic Nosferatu with a promising $11.6 million and Sonic 3 with $10.7 million.
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A horror-fantasy, Nosferatu is looking to come in third with as much as $40 million for the five days behind Mufasa and Sonic, well ahead of expectations (anything above $20 million would be a victory). Modeling is difficult this early in the game, and projections for all films could shift. Eggers' movie stars Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgard.
Mufasa is anticipating a five-day gross north of $50 million, while Sonic 3 is likewise targeting $50 million (at this stage, most rivals have Mufasa in the lead). Through Wednesday, the film's global haul is just shy of $200 million.
A flurry of other titles also opened nationwide on Christmas Day, particularly award contenders hoping to capitalize on the long five-day holiday weekend (Wednesday to Sunday) as 2024 comes to a close. Overall, the year-end has been good news for the box office, with the year-over-year deficit narrowing from 11 percent in mid-November to 4 percent now. The bonanza kicked off at Thanksgiving by the potent combo of Moana 2 , Wicked and Gladiator II .
Timothée Chalamet's critically acclaimed A Complete Unknown earned a stellar $7.2 million Wednesday as older moviegoers flocked to see the Bob Dylan biopic. The Golden Globe nominee from Searchlight Pictures could earn as much as $22 million-plus for the five days, a strong start and ahead of tracking.
A24's much buzzed-about Oscar hopeful Babygirl , starring Nicole Kidman, is eyeing a $7 million five-day opening after earning $1.7 million Wednesday. Distributor A24 is also handling awards frontrunner The Brutalist , which is bypassing a nationwide release in favor of a traditional platform rollout that sees it debut in six locations this weekend.
Amazon MGM Studios' A Fire Inside , which was penned by Mufasa director Barry Jenkins, is looking at a $6 million five-day opening
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