What a year it has been, and what better way than to cap it off by having the Speedster retain the crown for the box office on the last weekend of 2024. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 held off Mufasa: The Lion King with $38M in its second weekend, a 37% drop. This weekend drop is more similar to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s second-weekend drop than Rise of Skywalker, so the threequel is working to nab those post-December legs. It has zoomed past $210 million worldwide, had the most significant overseas start for a video-game-based series, and is on course to reach $200 million domestically.
After looking into the online discourse, the Sonic series has shown to be the most resilient and consistent for a family-friendly IP. A worldwide gross between $325-360 million looks to be in the works, so even if it grosses slightly less than its predecessor, it still keeps up with the pack.
Mufasa took second with $37.1 million, a more enthusiastic second weekend. It appears that people wanted Christmas to settle in before they witnessed the live-action prequel (re-adaption). Right now, this one has to be judged more in isolation, as it will not come close to its predecessor’s $543 million domestically or $1.66 billion global cume, so it may “only” get to $450-500 million worldwide, which would be an apropos reception for a sequel that had its predecessor overperform. If it gets past $195 million domestically and $495 million worldwide, it’ll claw past Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Newcomer Nosferatu earned $21.15 million in its debut, a relative win for a remake of the 1922 classic. The families will preach that his renowned fame came from that one Spongebob episode, and if so, it may have cajoled more towards its numbers as most recent non-franchise vampire features couldn’t draw much in terms of blood (sorry to Renfield and Lisa Frankenstein).
In other news, Wicked surpassed Mamma Mia! to become the highest-earning Broadway adaptation feature of all time as it hurls towards $700 million worldwide, while Moana 2 is climbing towards $900 million worldwide. These Christmas legs promise higher numbers, and it will be a long winter enough for them to break more records.
Newcomers A Complete Unknown and Babygirl earned $11.6 million and $4.4 million, respectively. Gladiator II has passed $435 million worldwide, while The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will finish its run around $40 million.
Yours indeed will cover the box office winners and losers of 2024 in a separate article once the new year initiates; otherwise, have a happy new year and wonderful start to 2025!
