It has been a long time since there has been good news at the box office for so many films in one weekend. While Paramount’s “Sonic 3” continues to earn the best numbers of the Sega series and Disney’s “Mufasa” bounces back from a poor opening, Searchlight’s “A Complete Unknown” is drawing in older audiences as “Nosferatu” is set to become one of the biggest hits ever for Focus Features.
It will come down to Monday actuals to decide who takes No. 1 for the final weekend of the year, with “Sonic 3” having a narrow edge with $38 million compared to $37.1 million for “Mufasa.” Through two weekends, the video game film has a domestic cume of $137.5 million, roughly 15% ahead of the pace set by “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” during Easter weekend 2022.
Overseas, “Sonic 3” is also showing robust numbers in its international opening with a $74 million start that is 83% ahead of “Sonic 2” in that suite of markets, with the U.K. being the top market with a $15.1 million opening. That gives “Sonic 3” a $211.5 million global total as heads towards $500 million in January.
“Mufasa,” which looked like it would end Disney’s year with a flop after its $35 million opening, has pulled out of its nosedive by not only avoiding a drop in its second weekend but actually seeing a 6% increase, giving it a 10-day total of $113.5 million in North America.
With Christmas Day and Boxing Day totals included, “Mufasa” becomes the top grossing film on the charts with $63.9 million over the 5-day period compared to $59.8 million for “Sonic 3.”
“Mufasa” won’t come close to the $1.65 billion of the 2019 remake of “The Lion King” — and it was never expected to considering the lack of familiar songs and story — but it now has a very good chance to turn a theatrical profit with $328 million grossed worldwide with France leading overseas markets with $20.5 million.
“Nosferatu” is in third with a shocking $21.1 million from 2,992 theaters, giving Robert Eggers’ remake of the vampire classic an extended 5-day opening of $40.3 million that already eclipses the $34 million total made by his last film, “The Northman,” in 2022.
With this start, “Nosferatu” has a chance to join “A Quiet Place: Day One” and “Alien: Romulus” as the third horror film in 2024 to gross $100 million in North America. If it does, it will challenge the all-time studio records for Focus Features, as the record for Comcast’s specialty distributor before inflation adjustment currently belongs to the stop-motion classic “Coraline” with $116 million, including from its successful recent 15th anniversary re-release.
When inflation adjustment is included, the Focus record goes to “Brokeback Mountain” with $137 million, a figure adjusted from its $83 million total grossed back in 2005.
Searchlight’s “A Complete Unknown” is also opening above projections with an $11.6 million 3-day/$23.2 million 5-day start. The James Mangold biopic starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan has earned the second-highest opening in Searchlight history behind only the $20.4 million 2009 opening of “Notorious.”
On the negative side, “A Complete Unknown” carries a rather high reported production budget of $70 million, meaning that it will have to leg out through January with Boomers who grew up with Bob Dylan and possibly with the younger fanbase that Chalamet has grown through films like “Wonka” and “Dune.” Given that the actor is expected to be an Oscar contender, “A Complete Unknown” could get a further boost when Academy Awards nominations get released next month.
Also opening in theaters this weekend are A24’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” starring Nicole Kidman and the inspirational boxing biopic “The Fire Inside” from Amazon MGM from debuting director and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison.
“Babygirl” earned $7.2 million from 2,115 theaters over five days against a reported budget of $20 million. While critics’ reviews skewed positive with a 77% Rotten Tomatoes score and particular praise given to Kidman’s performance, audiences have been tepid with a B- on CinemaScore and a 54% RT audience score.
“The Fire Inside” barely cracked the top 10 with $4.3 million over five days from 2,006 theaters, but has the lowest break-even point of this weekend’s releases with a $12 million production budget. Starring Ryan Destiny as boxing legend Claressa Shields, the film has won over those who have seen the film with a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score and an A on CinemaScore.
Finally, the big November hits “Wicked” and “Moana 2” continue to leg out. Universal’s musical is now the highest grossing Broadway adaptation in history, passing the $400 million mark with $31.7 million over five days with the help of a sing-along version released on Christmas Day. “Wicked” now has a total of $424 million domestic and $634 million worldwide.
“Moana 2,” meanwhile, added $28.3 million over the five-day period as it inches closer to $1 billion worldwide with a global total of $882 million, including $395 million domestic.
As New Year’s Eve approaches, the final six weeks of 2024 have allowed the market to recover after the strike-induced release delays after the first half of the year. After falling 27.5% behind the pace set in 2023 prior to the release of the year’s highest grossing film, “Inside Out 2,” 2024 is set to finish less than 4% behind the $9.06 billion grossed last year.
