‘Sonic 3’, ‘Mufasa’ battle for No. 1 at holiday box office

AP:

Two family films dominated the holiday box office this week, with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 winning the three-day weekend over Mufasa by a blue hair.

Paramount’s Sonic movie earned $38 million, while Mufasa brought in $37.1 million from theatres in the US and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.

It all adds up to a rather robust theatrical landscape, helped by the continued success of Wicked and Moana 2, which are on their sixth and fifth weekends, respectively.

The vampire horror Nosferatu also debuted fairly triumphantly. Robert Eggers’ modern reimagining of a 1922 silent film starring Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp rose to the top of a starry batch of Christmas Day newcomers, which included the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, with Timothée Chalamet; the erotic drama Babygirl with Nicole Kidman; and The Fire Inside, about boxer Claressa Shields.

Nosferatu landed in third place with $21.2 million from the weekend and $40.3 million from its first five days. Not accounting for inflation, it had the best Christmas Day opening ever for a genre film, with $11.6 million. It was a gamble to open Nosferatu on Christmas, when family films or all-ages blockbusters tend to be prioritised. But it paid off, attracting the coveted 18 to 34-year-old demographic to theatres.

“It was a risky move, but we knew that we had such a great film,” said Lisa Bunnell, who leads distribution for Focus Features. “A lot of people thought we were insane. But I think the more that people thought we were crazy, the more we all felt like it was the right thing to do.”

The Bob Dylan movie, directed by James Mangold, also got off to a bright start with $11.6 million over the weekend and $23.2 million since Christmas. The five-day total is a record for Searchlight Pictures since Disney acquired the company in early 2019.

Babygirl, an A24 release from filmmaker Halina Reijn, played on 2115 screens, earning $4.4 million over the weekend and $7.2 million since Christmas. The film stars Kidman as a married, buttoned-up CEO who begins an affair with a young intern at the company, played by Harris Dickinson. Kidman won the best acting prize for her performance at the Venice Film Festival.

The Fire Inside, from Amazon MGM Studios, meanwhile got a bit lost in the mix despite strong reviews. It has earned a total of $4.3 million, with $2 million coming from weekend showings where it played in 2006 theatres.

Thanksgiving releases continued to perform well through the Christmas timeframe. Fourth place went to Wicked, which earned another $19.5 million, bringing its domestic total to $424.2 million.

Moana 2 rounded out the top five films this weekend with $18.2 million. The Disney movie has made $882.5 million globally and is closing in on $400 million domestically.

Christmas Day itself was massive for the industry, with $61 million in ticket sales. Thursday was nearly as big, with $50 million.

Comscore is projecting that the year will net out with about $8.75 billion in domestic box office receipts.