'Mufasa' and 'Sonic' Locked in an International Battle
by EG
It says something about Hollywood's box office performance in 2025 that the only thing to be happy about is that two movies released in 2024 are still selling tickets. Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 are locked in a virtual tie as far as domestic ticket sales go, while Mufasa continues to perform much better internationally. That the two hits are still doing well is welcome news for Hollywood, given that the opening weeks of 2025 have been extraordinarily quiet in theaters. Read on for details.
Mufasa: The Lion King has been vindicated.
On Friday, Disney‘s prequel and follow-up to 2019’s The Lion King narrowly passed up Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at the domestic box office with $232.7 million in ticket sales, a feat no one thought possible after a muted opening at the Christmas box office. And by Sunday, its global total will be around $670 million as it prepares to jump to the $700 million mark against a $200 million-plus production budget before marketing.
Not that Sonic 3 isn’t its own huge success story. It’s earned a franchise-best $231.7 million domestically through Friday and $463.7 million globally against a production budget of $122 million. It’s very rare that a threequel earns 20 percent more than a previous title in the series, meaning it’s a growth property that would make any rival studio see green.
Rather, this is about Mufasa‘s impressive staying power thanks to strong word of mouth, viral marketing and a longer exclusive theatrical window, even if the prequel will never come close to matching The Lion King, which exceeded all expectations in grossing $1.66 billion globally just months before the COVID pandemic struck and changed box office history forever.
Just as pundits questioned whether Jon Favreau‘s Lion King redux would work, many were quick to write off Mufasa when it got trounced by Sonic 3 over the Dec. 20-22 weekend. The Disney pic debuted to $35.4 million domestically, versus $64.4 million for Sonic 3. But as families became more available once presents were unwrapped on Christmas day, Mufasa found its roar. What’s happened since is even more impressive. But, unlike Sonic, there’s no guaranteed next installment.
Stats to consider: Mufasa was the No. 1 or No. 2 title for 36 of its first 38 days in release. And to date, it has earned 6.5 times its opening gross. That’s the third-highest multiple ever for a pic playing on more than 3,000 screens and opening to less than $40 million behind 2006’s Night at the Museum (8.2 multiple) and 2009’s The Blind Side (7.5 multiple), not adjusted for inflation.
And it’s the first such wide release since 2010 to cross the $230 million threshold in domestic ticket sales despite opening to less than $40 million from 3,000 or more locations.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.