In the final box office battle of 2024, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 surpassed Mufasa: The Lion King for the title.
Sonic took the top spot for a second straight weekend after bringing in another $38 million, according to box office tracking company Comscore.
Paramount’s Sonic sequel has earned $137.5 million domestically in two weeks.
Disney’s Mufasa was slightly behind in second place with $37.1 million Friday through Sunday. Mufasa’s two-week total currently stands at $113.4 million, but those numbers could change Monday when final weekend sales are tallied.
Related: After ‘Mufasa’ Barry Jenkins Is Done Directing CGI Movies
Focus Features release Nosferatu opened strong in third place with $21.1 million. Since the Robert Eggers’ horror film debuted on Christmas Day, it has blown past expectations and brought in an impressive $40.3 million.
The film centers on a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake. The cast includes Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Willem Dafoe.
Elsewhere this weekend, Wicked landed in fourth place with $19.4 million in its sixth weekend in theaters. The Universal Pictures movie musical debuted on Nov. 20, and has earned a staggering $424.2 million in North America alone.
Disney’s Moana 2 rounded out the top five after taking in $18.2 million in its fifth weekend in theaters. Through Sunday, the film has earned $394.6 million.
Among the awards contenders opening this weekend, the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet debuted with $11.6 million for a sixth place finish.
It was followed by the Nicole Kidman-led sexual thriller Babygirl, which opened in sixth place with $4.3 million.
Amazon MGM’s biopic The Fire Inside, about Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, debuted in 10th place with $2 million.
“This is a small opening for a sports drama,” David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research told Variety about The Fire Inside on Sunday.
Still, Gross said, “With a modest budget of under $12 million, a theatrical release like this is going to increase the movie’s ancillary value and the film should recover its costs from domestic business alone.”
Earlier this month, the African American Film Critics Association named the sports drama one of the top ten films of 2024, as previously reported.
Year to date, the 2024 box office has earned $8.65 billion through Sunday, per Comscore. That’s down just 3.5 percent versus this time in 2023.
Check out the box office chart below from Comscore Senior Media Analyst Dergarabedian.
According to @Comscore @csMoviesUS @CSGlobalMovies this weekend’s overall total estimated 3-day Domestic box office is at an estimated $165M (& YTD 2024 (now at $8.659B through Sunday) is down just 3.5% vs. 2023, The full year should wind up at an estimated $8.75B, down just 3.3%… pic.twitter.com/UPNqRdMIBz
— Paul Dergarabedian (@PDergarabedian) December 29, 2024
