Lion and land critter continued to go at like an episode of Mutual Omaha’s Wild Kingdom this weekend with each studio screaming that they’re No. 1. If you look at the standard 3-day weekend, it’s Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with $38M while Disney’s Mufasa is looking at an estimated $37M. However, on the five-day measure which saw The Lion King prequel rise from the dust on Christmas Day and Dec. 26 in its dailies, Mufasa takes the lead with $63.7M. We’re still waiting on Disney official numbers, but not much has changed since yesterday.
Saturday was a close call for both family movies with Sonic 3 seeing $13.5M, and Mufasa and an estimated $13.3M. However, it wasn’t a Christmas of cannibalization as there was room for four family movies, the Thanksgiving holdovers of Universal’s Wicked and Disney’s Moana 2. For all the concern that similar demo movies could eat each other up, here’s a scenario of all boats rise with the 3-day overall weekend at $161M, +43% over the near New Year’s Eve weekend of last year and 56% ahead of the same frame at the tail end of 2022 when Avatar: The Way of Water was soaking up most of the business in a deep freeze winter.
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That said, the overall Christmas week of Dec. 20-26 amounted to $263M per Box Office Mojo, which was down from last year’s holiday week (Dec. 22-28) of $279.9M by 6%. Note Christmas fell on a Monday last year which fuels more of a four-day weekend. The last time Christmas fell on a Wednesday was in pre- Covid 2019 when Disney/Lucasfilm’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker rallied all movies to a massive week of $485.5M (the J.J. Abrams movie being responsible for 60% of the marketplace).
Another record notched by Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: The movie surpassed Mamma Mia globally ($611.4M) this weekend to become the No.1 stage musical adaptation at the global box office. Wicked’s global cume to-date currently stands at $634.379M.
Opening weekend PostTrak exits showed that Wicked leaned largely toward older women at 48% over 25, with the 13-17 demo at 7% but c’mon, what mother isn’t taking her girls to see Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo? Universal may want to have second thoughts about pulling the Jon M. Chu directed movie from its Dec. 31 PVOD date as the highest grossing feature take of a Broadway musical saw a +36% 3-day surge in its sixth frame with $19.2M in third place and a 5-day of $31.5M and a running total of $423.9M.
Moana 2 is seeing an $18.3M 5th weekend, also up 39%, with a 5-day of $28.3M.
After a $7.8M Saturday, The 3-day on Focus Features’ Nosferatu moves to $21.1M with a 5-day of $40.3M. As we mentioned previously that’s the fourth best opening for Focus Features after Downton Abbey ($31M), Insidious 3 ($23.7M) and London Has Fallen ($21.6M). In fact any time Focus opens a movie to north of $20M, that’s reason to send off bullhorns. Post Covid, with NBCUniversal dictating all these financial theatrical-day window terms on Focus Features (most of the label’s titles went 18-days to PVOD in 2023 except for Conclave and Housekeeping for Beginners which were at 32 days), it felt like this label couldn’t shine in the marketplace like they did pre-Covid. However, Nosferatu provides hope that the Lost in Translation studio still has it.
Reasons on PostTrak why audiences attended Nosferatu include the horror genre (48%), director Robert Eggers (32%), while 33% thought the fanged monster and babe feature looked fun and entertaining. Lots of walk-up business with 59% of the audience buying their tickets same day. What type of ads influenced the audience the most to find this movie? Of those polled, 22% cited social media, while 16% said friends and family with 11% saying in-theater trailer. Breakdown of demos were men over 25 (41%), women over 25 (33%), women under 25 (14%) and men under 25 (13%). The best grades for this movie came from the 25-34 demo (81%) and 35-44 (81%).
Searchlight’s A Complete Unknown at an estimated 3-day of $11.6M and 5-day of $23.2M also saw notable walk-up at 62%. So far, those opening figures are the best for the Disney-owned 20th Century Fox classic label post the 2019 merger as well as COVID. Reasons why people went: 53% bought tickets because it was a Bob Dylan movie, 36% went for Timothée Chalamet, while 20% went for the cast as a whole, which included Monica Barbaro, Elle Fanning and Edward Norton. 50/50 male-female split as of last night on PostTrak with 42% women over 25 who gave the movie its best grade at 94%, men over 25 at 40% with a 91% grade, 10% men under 25 (84% grade) while women under 25 at 8% trailed (with an 89% grade).
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Mufasa (Dis) 4,100 theaters, Fri $12M (-9%) Sat $13.3M Sun $11.7M 3-day $37M (+4%), 5-day $63.7M, Total $111.4M/Wk 2
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Par) 3,769 (+8) theaters, Fri $12.6M (-50%) Sat $13.5M Sun $11.9M 3-day $38M (-38%), 5-day $59.9M, Total $137.55M/Wk 2
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Nosferatu (Foc) 2,992 theaters, Fri $7.25M, Sat $7.8M Sun $6M 3-day $21.1M, 5-day $40.3M/Wk 1
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Wicked (Uni) 3,177 (-119) theaters, Fri $6.8M (+83%) Sat $6.8M Sun $5.79M 3-day $19.4M (+37%), 5-day $31.7M, Total $424.2M/Wk 6
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Moana 2 (Dis) 3410 (-190) theaters, Fri $6.3M (+7%) Sat $6.4M Sun $5.6M 3-day $18.3M (+39%), 5-day $28.3M, Total $394.2M/Wk 5
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A Complete Unknown (Sea) 2,835 theaters, Fri $3.9M, Sat $4.1M Sun $3.5M 3-day $11.6M, 5-day $23M/Wk 1
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Babygirl (A24) 2,115 theaters, Fri $1.4M, Sat $1.6M Sun $1.3M 3-day $4.39M, 5-day $7.2M/Wk 1
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Gladiator 2 (Par) 1,865 (-532) theaters, Fri $1.3M (+8%) Sat $1.5M Sun $1.27M 3-day $4.1M (-9%), 5 day $6.89M, Total $163M/Wk 6
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Homestead (Angel) 1,769 (-117) theaters, Fri $980K (-66%) Sat $1.1M Sun $990K 3-day $3M (-50%), 5-day $5.2M, Total $12.7M/Wk 2
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The Fire Inside (Amz) 2006 theaters, Fri $653K, Sat $753K Sun $625K 3-day $2M, 5-day $4.33M/Wk 1
Notables: The Brutalist (A24) 7 screens, Wed $75K, Th $54,7K, Fri $63K Sat $73,7K Sun $66,3K 3-day $203K, 5-day $332,8K, Total $687,4K/Wk 2
