Two giant block buster films landed in theatres just a week before Christmas, but who won the race and topped the Christmas Box Office this year? Well, the answer seems unclear.
Disney’s ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ and Paramount’s ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’ were neck and neck over this holiday box office week.
On launch weekend Disney had claimed that their live action ‘Lion King’ prequel was number one. However, Sonic fans have accused the film giant for “massaging their numbers” to make the film seem as if its doing better than it is.
Disney’s ‘Mufasa’ had indeed topped the global box office, raking in $327 million during its first two weeks, compared to Sonic's $211 million. But Sonic fans were quick to point out that ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’ had topped the US box office, making $138 million, as opposed to Mufasa’s $113 million. Fans speculated ‘Mufasa’ may have topped the global charts as it had been released in more markets than ‘Sonic’.
Yet in week two Disney made a post to X claiming that ‘Mufasa’ had made it to the top of the US box office. As per a community note added to the bottom of the post by X, Sonic 3 was still at the top of the chart and Disney’s figures behind their claim could not be backed up.
#Mufasa: The Lion King is now the #1 movie in America, and the #1 movie in the world, two weeks in a row! See it now, only in theaters! pic.twitter.com/bPIi9DBQWP
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) December 29, 2024
Variety says that’ Mufasa’ had in fact beat out ‘Sonic’ at the US box office over the five-day Christmas period (Wednesday-Sunday) but ‘Sonic’ pushed ahead and narrowly stole the long weekend from Disney.
The over-all Christmas winner is still up in the air and likely will depend on which franchise you prefer. However, these two were not the only movies making noise this week. Lets take a look at the UK and Ireland box office.
‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’ sits miles above ‘Mufasa’ earning £11.8 million as apposed to ‘Mufasa's’ £4.2 million.
Universal’s ‘Wicked’ secures third place earning £2.7 million in its sixth week. The musical starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo has become the highest grossing musical adaptation, beating out 2008’s ‘Mamma Mia!’
Fourth place is Disney's ‘Moana 2’. The sequel to the Polenesian princess film raked in £2.2 million in its fifth week on release.
The Robbie Williams biopic ‘Better Man’ debuts at fifth place earning £1.6 million for the popstar. The film recently went viral over TikTok as people were shocked to learn that many Americans did not know who the singer was and were rightly confused to see trailers of a dancing monkey.
In sixth place sits STUDIOCANAL’s third installment of the Paddington Bear film series, ‘Paddington In Peru’, now in its eighth week of release. The family fun film earned £819 thousand this week.
