Box-Office-Faceoff

Christmas Box Office Highlights: ‘Sonic 3’ Tops, ‘Nosferatu’ Surprises

 

Two major family films, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King, for instance dominated the New Year holiday box office, showcasing tight competition. Taking on the three-day weekend, Paramount’s Sonic 3 won the battle this time by securing $38 million while Disney and Pixar claimed $37.1 million for Mufasa. However, over the five days, Disney’s Mufasa emerged the winner taking $63.8 million proving the staying power of the house brand during holiday season.

 

A Robust Holiday Box Office

 

A packed holiday schedule was presented by box office with movies of different genres, like Wicked and Moana 2, made home for different demographics. Wicked was fourth taking an extra US$19.5m, putting its cumulative domestic haul at US$424.2m. On the other hand, Moana 2 had a collection of US$18.2 million, worldwide, reaching near US$882.5 million revenue.

New faces were also received in the Christmas season. Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu scored US$21.2m on the weekend and US$40.3m in the five days of its release, putting it on the top of the success charts as the ‘best Christmas Day opening ever for a horror film’. Lisa Bunnell, head of distribution at Focus Features commented on the move saying, “It was a given that it was a risk,” she said, “But we knew that we had such a great film.”

 

Diverse New Releases

 

Other films that premiered on Christmas Day were Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown has grossed US$11.6m in the weekend and US$23.2m in five days. Having 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes site and ‘A’ CinemaScore, the movie will surely have a solid awards-season performance.

A24’s Babygirl, featuring Nicole Kidman, pulled $4.4m by the weekend-end, and $7.2m by five days, and Amazon MGM’s The Fire Inside could barely launch with the $2m of the weekend-end.

 

Organization Industry Trends and Year-End Projections

 

Christmas falling on Wednesday helped to sustain the box offices as the tickets sales on Christmas day stood at $61 million. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, remarked, “Every day was like Saturday at the box office because of the way the holidays lined up.”

Despite the seasonal surge, the domestic annual box office revenue is expected to be at US$8.75 billion, which is 3.3 percent less compared to last year’s US$9 billion and far from pre-COVID levels of US$11 billion during the same period. The final tallies will be announced at the start of next week, concluding the year-end positions.

 

Weekend Box Office Leaders

 

1. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 – $38M

2. Mufasa: The Lion King – $37.1M

3. Nosferatu – $21.2M

4. Wicked – $19.5M

5. Moana 2 – $18.2M