Box Office: Sonic 3 in Search of Mufasa: The Lion King

The end-of-year marquee isn’t as crowded as usual this year, and there’s no such thing star Wars or Avatarbut Hollywood studios believe there’s still enough fun to be had at the box office.

The promotion officially begins on December 20th when Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Disney Mufasa: The Lion King Domestic office debut. Both films have a PG rating, a big advantage in terms of family appeal.

sound – which has become a flagship franchise for Paramount and video game maker Sega – is widely expected to cap the weekend with a three-day opening of $60 million (exhibitors believe it has a chance at $70 million). dollars), followed by Mufasa with 50 million dollars. Both films are also being released abroad.

The Christmas corridor is the most unusual time of year at the box office. That’s because every day until New Year’s Day can feel like a Saturday or Sunday, resulting in unusually high multiples, helped by a relatively quiet January.

Outside Stars WarsHoliday titles aren’t known for mega openings. Even Avatar And Avatar: The Way of Water didn’t break any records in their debuts, but went on and on until they became (not adjusted for inflation) the number 1 and number 3 highest-grossing films of all time worldwide.

Sonic3 sees director Jeff Fowler reunite with returning cast members Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, Adam Pally and Lee Majdoub. Keanu Reeves joins the franchise as Shadow the Hedgehog, while other new additions to the series include Alyla Browne and Krysten Ritter.

The story follows the team of Sonic, Knuckles and Tails as they face their most powerful foe yet, a mysterious villain with powers they have never faced before. With their abilities inferior in every way, Team Sonic must find an unlikely alliance in the hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.

Sonic3 was well received by critics – the casting of Reeves went smoothly – and boasts the franchise’s best critic score of 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (compared to 64 and 68 percent for the first two, respectively).

Mufasa Directed by Barry Jenkins, Lin-Manuel Miranda provided original songs. It’s also getting better reviews so far than 2019 The Lion Kingwhich grossed over $1 billion worldwide, but is definitely a mixed bag (currently sitting at 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).

An origin story steeped in the musical Mufasa tells the story of two young boys (Mufasa and Taka) who form a quick bond and become as close as brothers. Then a menacing enemy tests their bonds and forces them to embark on an adventure that will change their fate and their friendship.

Combining live-action techniques with photorealistic computer-generated imagery, the film’s all-star voice actors include Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., John Kani, Tiffany Boone, Kagiso Lediga, Preston Nyman and Mads Mikkelsen.

Paramount will continue to expand in the awards space September 5thwhile A24 arranged special advance screenings of the 3.5-hour film The brutalist On December 18th, the film will premiere at Imax locations before the film opens at select locations over the weekend of December 20th-22nd.

Focus opens up vampire horror fantasy Nosferatu nationwide on Christmas Day to take advantage of the long five-day holiday weekend (Wednesday-Sunday). The film, starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hope and Bill Skarsgård, is expected to hit theaters in the mid-teens to $20 million range.

A number of other awards contenders will also look to use the long holiday weekend to their advantage, including Searchlight and Timothée Chalamet’s critically acclaimed Bob Dylan biopic A complete unknownwhich opened nationwide on December 25th opposite the busy A24 Baby girlwith Nicole Kidman and Amazon MGM Studios’ A fire withinwhich was written by Barry Jenkins. (A complete unknown held sneaks at more than Imax locations on December 18th).

Thanksgiving blockbuster Moana 2 (Walt Disney Animation) and Evil (Universal) should also make a big contribution to the Christmas box office.

Disney has enjoyed a dramatic resurgence at the box office this year, surpassing $2 billion in domestic ticket sales in 2024 on Thursday, a feat no other studio is expected to achieve this year. Overseas, Disney is nearing $3 billion, putting it at over $5 billion, an industry best. The next closest studio domestically is Universal, with more than $1.7 billion in domestic ticket sales (Universal stole the crown in domestic and global market share from Disney last year, something no studio had accomplished in years).

So far, domestic revenue in 2024 is 4.6 percent behind 2023, according to Comscore. That’s a significant improvement from before Thanksgiving, when the deficit was 11 percent in mid-November. Final annual sales in North America are expected to be $8.6 billion or more, but it all depends on the final holiday season.

London-based Gower Street Analytics is more optimistic that domestic box office revenue will reach $8.8 billion in 2024 and the international box office will reach $21.7 billion, bringing the global total to $30. $5, a significant drop from $34 billion in 2023. Gower – like many others – are predicting profits in 2025 or one global profit of $33 billion.

December 19, 9:30 a.m: An earlier version of this story stated the release schedule was incorrect A complete unknown. THR regrets the mistake.